Celebrated crimes

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT LOS ANGELES

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

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CATINAT, WHOSE TEMPER WAS FIERCE,
SUFFERED WITH COURAGE,
BUT CURSED HIS TORTURERS

—p. 659

From the original illustration by D. F. Laugee

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

VOLUME II

ILLUSTRATED

P F COLLIER & SON
NEW YORK

Copyright 1910
By P. F. Collier & Son

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MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH
1551-1815

CHAPTER I

IT is possible that our reader, whose recollections
may perhaps go back as far as the Restoration,
will be surprised at the size of the frame required
for the picture we are about to bring before him,
embracing as it does two centuries and a half ; but as
everything has its precedent, every river its source,
every volcano its central fire, so it is that the spot
of earth on which we are going to fix our eyes
has been the scene of action and reaction, revenge
and retaliation, till the religious annals of the South
resemble an account-book kept by double entry, in
which fanaticism enters the profits of death, one
side being written with the blood of Catholics, the
other with that of Protestants.

In the great political and religious convulsions
of the South, the earthquake-like throes of which
were felt even in the capital, Nimes has always
taken the central place; Nimes will therefore be
the pivot round which our story will revolve, and
though we may sometimes leave it for a moment,
we shall always return thither without fail.

Nimes was reunited to France by Louis vm, the

415
Dumas— Vol. 2—1

orn

CELEBRATED CRIMES

government being taken from its vicomte, Bernard
Athon vi, and given to consuls in the year 1207.
During the episcopate of Michel Briconnet the relics
of St. Bauzile were discovered, and hardly were the
rejoicings over this event at an end when the new
doctrines began to spread over France. It was in
the South that the persecutions began, and in 155 1
several persons were publicly burnt as heretics by
order of the Seneschal's Court at Nimes, amongst
whom was Maurice Secenat, a missionary from
the Cevennes, who was taken in the very act of
preaching. Thenceforth Nimes rejoiced in two
martyrs and two patron saints, one revered by the
Catholics, and one by the Protestants; St. Bauzile,
after reigning as sole protector for twenty-four
years, being forced to share the honours of his
guardianship with his new rival.

Maurice Secenat was followed as preacher by
Pierre de Lavau ; these two names being still remem-
bered among the crowd of obscure and forgotten
martyrs. He also was put to death on the Place de
la Salamandre, all the difference being that the
former was burnt and the latter hanged.

Pierre de Lavau was attended in his last
moments by Dominique Deyron, Doctor of The-
ology; but instead of, as is usual, the dying man
being converted by the priest, it was the priest who
was converted by de Lavau, and the teaching which

416

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

it was desired should be suppressed burst forth
again. Decrees were issued against Dominique
Deyron; he was pursued and tracked down, and
only escaped the gibbet by fleeing to the mountains.

The mountains are the refuge of all rising or
decaying sects; God has given to the powerful on
earth city, plain, and sea, but the mountains are
the heritage of the oppressed.

Persecution and proselytism kept pace with each
other, but the blood that was shed produced the
usual effect: it rendered the soil on which it fell
fruitful, and after two or three years of struggle,
during which two or three hundred Huguenots had
been burnt or hanged, Nimes awoke one morning
with a Protestant majority. In 1556 the consuls
received a sharp reprimand on account of the
leaning of the city towards the doctrines of the
Reformation; but in 1557, one short year after
this admonition, Henri 11 was forced to confer
the office of president of the Presidial Court on
William de Calviere, a Protestant. At last a deci-
sion of the senior judge having declared that it was
the duty of the consuls to sanction the execution of
heretics by their presence, the magistrates of the
city protested against this decision, and the power
of the Crown was insufficient to carry it out.

Henri 11 dying, Catherine de Medicis and the
Guises took possession of the throne in the name

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CELEBRATED CRIMES

of Frangois n. There is a moment when nations
can always draw a long breath, it is while their
kings are awaiting burial; and Nimes took advan-
tage of this moment on the death of Henri n, and
on September 29th, 1559, Guillaume Moget founded
the first Protestant community.

Guillaume Moget came from Geneva. He was
the spiritual son of Calvin, and came to Nimes
with the firm purpose of converting all the remaining
Catholics or of being hanged. As he was eloquent,
spirited, and wily, too wise to be violent, ever
ready to give and take in the matter of concessions,
luck was on his side, and Guillaume Moget escaped
hanging.

The moment a rising sect ceases to be down-
trodden it becomes a queen, and heresy, already
mistress of three-fourths of the city, began to hold
up its head with boldness in the streets. A house-
holder called Guillaume Raymond opened his house
to the Calvinist missionary, and allowed him to
preach in it regularly to all who came, and the
wavering were thus confirmed in the new faith.
Soon the house became too narrow to contain the
crowds which flocked thither to imbibe the poison
of the revolutionary doctrine, and impatient glances
fell on the churches.

Meanwhile the Vicomte de Joyeuse, who had just
been appointed governor of Languedoc in the place

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MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

of M. de Villars, grew uneasy at the rapid progress
made by the Protestants, who so far from trying
to conceal it boasted of it; so he summoned the
consuls before him, admonished them sharply in the
king's name, and threatened to quarter a garrison
in the town which would soon put an end to these
disorders. The consuls promised to stop the evil
without the aid of outside help, and to carry out
their promise doubled the patrol and appointed a
captain of the town whose sole duty was to keep
order in the streets. Now this captain, whose office
had been created solely for the repression of heresy,
happened to be Captain Bouillargues, the most
inveterate Huguenot who ever existed.

The result of this discriminating choice was that
Guillaume Moget began to preach, and once when
a great crowd had gathered in a garden to hear him
hold forth, heavy rain came on, and it became
necessary for the people either to disperse or to seek
shelter under a roof. As the preacher had just
reached the most interesting part of his sermon,
the congregation did not hesitate an instant to take
the latter alternative. The Church of St. Etienne
du Capitole was quite near: someone present sug-
gested that this building, if not the most suitable,
was at least the most spacious for such a gathering.
The idea was received with acclamation: the rain
grew heavier, the crowd invaded the church, drove

419

CELEBRATED CRIMES

out the priests, trampled the Holy Sacrament under
foot, and broke the sacred images. This being
accomplished, Guillaume Moget entered the pulpit,
and resumed his sermon with such eloquence that
his hearers' excitement redoubled, and not satisfied
with what had already been done, rushed off to
seize on the Franciscan monastery, where they
forthwith installed Moget and the two women, who,
according to Menard the historian of Languedoc,
never left him day or night; all which proceedings
were regarded by Captain Bouillargues with mag-
nificent calm.

The consuls being once more summoned before
M. de Villars, who had again become governor,
would gladly have denied the existence of disorder ;
but finding this impossible, they threw themselves
on his mercy. He being unable to repose confidence
in them any longer, sent a garrison to the citadel
of Nimes, which the municipality was obliged to
support, appointed a governor of the city with four
district captains under him, and formed a body of
military police which quite superseded the municipal
constabulary. Moget was expelled from Nimes,
and Captain Bouillargues deprived of office.

Francis n dying in his turn, the usual effect was
produced, — that is, the persecution became less
fierce, — and Moget therefore returned to Nimes.
This was a victory, and every victory being a step

420

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

forward, the triumphant preacher organised a Con-
sistory, and the deputies of Nimes demanded from
the States-General of Orleans possession of the
churches. No notice was taken of this demand;
but the Protestants were at no loss how to proceed.
On the 2 1 st December 1561 the churches of
Ste. Eugenie, St. Augustin, and the Cordeliers were
taken by assault, and cleared of their images in a
hand's turn; and this time Captain Bouillargues
was not satisfied with looking on, but directed the
operations.

The cathedral was still safe, and in it were
entrenched the remnant of the Catholic clergy; but
it was apparent that at the earliest opportunity it
too would be turned into a meeting-house ; and this
opportunity was not long in coming.

One Sunday, when Bishop Bernard d'Elbene had
celebrated mass, just as the regular preacher was
about to begin his sermon, some children who were
playing in the close began to hoot the beguinier.1
Some of the faithful being disturbed in their medi-
tations, came out of the church and chastised the
little Huguenots, whose parents considered them-
selves in consequence to have been insulted in the
persons of their children. A great commotion
ensued, crowds began to form, and cries of " To
the church ! to the church ! " were heard. Captain
1A name of contempt for friars.
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CELEBRATED CRIMES

Bouillargues happened to be in the neighbourhood,
and being very methodical set about organising the
insurrection; then putting himself at its head, he
charged the cathedral, carrying everything before
him, in spite of the barricades which had been
hastily erected by the Papists. The assault was
over in a few moments; the priests and their flock
fled by one door, while the Reformers entered by
another. The building was in the twinkling of an
eye adapted to the new form of worship : the great
crucifix from above the altar was dragged about the
streets at the end of a rope and scourged at every
cross-roads. In the evening a large fire was lighted
in the place before the cathedral, and the archives of
the ecclesiastical and religious houses, the sacred
images, the relics of the saints, the decorations of
the altar, the sacerdotal vestments, even the Host
itself, were thrown on it without any remonstrance
from the consuls; the very wind which blew upon
Nimes breathed heresy.

For the moment Nimes was in full revolt, and
the spirit of organisation spread: Moget assumed
the titles of pastor and minister of the Christian
Church. Captain Bouillargues melted down the
sacred vessels of the Catholic churches, and paid in
this manner the volunteers of Nimes and the
German mercenaries; the stones of the demolished
religious houses were used in the construction of

422

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

fortifications, and before anyone thought of attack-
ing it the city was ready for a siege. It was at this
moment that Guillaume Calviere, who was at the
head of the Presidial Court, Moget being president
of the Consistory, and Captain Bouillargues com-
mander-in-chief of the armed forces, suddenly
resolved to create a new authority, which, while
sharing the powers hitherto vested solely in the
consuls, should be, even more than they, devoted to
Calvin : thus the office of les Messieurs came into
being. This was neither more nor less than a
committee of public safety, and having been formed
in the stress of revolution it acted in a revolutionary
spirit, absorbing the powers of the consuls, and
restricting the authority of the Consistory to things
spiritual. In the meantime the Edict of Amboise
was promulgated, and it was announced that the
king, Charles ix, accompanied by Catherine de
Medicis, was going to visit his loyal provinces in
the South.

Determined as was Captain Bouillargues, for
once he had to give way, so strong was the party
against him; therefore, despite the murmurs of
the fanatics, the city of Nimes resolved, not only to
open its gates to its sovereign, but to give him such
a reception as would efface the bad impression
which Charles might have received from the history
of recent events. The royal procession was met at

423

CELEBRATED CRIMES

the Pont du Gare, where young girls attired as
nymphs emerged from a grotto bearing a collation,
which they presented to their Majesties, who
graciously and heartily partook of it. The repast at
an end, the illustrious travellers resumed their
progress; but the imagination of the Nimes authori-
ties was not to be restrained within such narrow
bounds : at the entrance to the city the king found
the Porte de la Couronne transformed into a
mountain-side, covered with vines and olive trees,
under which a shepherd was tending his flock. As
the king approached the mountain parted as if
yielding to the magic of his power, the most beau-
tiful maidens and the most noble came out to meet
their sovereign, presenting him the keys of the city
wreathed with flowers, and singing to the accom-
paniment of the shepherd's pipe. Passing through
the mountain, Charles saw chained to a palm tree
in the depths of a grotto a monster crocodile from
whose jaws issued flames : this was a representation
of the old coat of arms granted to the city by
Octavius Caesar Augustus after the battle of Actium,
and which Francis i had restored to it in exchange
for a model in silver of the amphitheatre presented
to him by the city. Lastly, the king found in the
Place de la Salamandre numerous bonfires, so that
without waiting to ask if these fires were made
from the remains of the faggots used at the martyr-

424

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

dom of Maurice Secenat, he went to bed very much
pleased with the reception accorded him by his good
city of Nimes, and sure that all the unfavourable
reports he had heard were calumnies.

Nevertheless, in order that such rumours, however
slight their foundation, should not again be heard,
the king appointed Damville governor of Langue-
doc, installing him himself in the chief city of his
government; he then removed every consul from
his post without exception, and appointed in their
place Guy-Rochette, doctor and lawyer; Jean Beau-
dan, burgess; Francois Aubert, mason; and Cristol
Ligier, farm labourer — all Catholics. He then left
for Paris, where a short time after he concluded
a treaty with the Calvinists, which the people with
its gift of prophecy called "The halting peace of
unsure seat," and which in the end led to the mas-
sacre of St. Bartholomew.

Gracious as had been the measures taken by the
king to secure the peace of his good city of Nimes,
they had nevertheless been reactionary; conse-
quently the Catholics, feeling the authorities were
now on their side, returned in crowds : the house-
holders reclaimed their houses, the priests their
churches; while, rendered ravenous by the bitter
bread of exile, both the clergy and the laity pillaged
the treasury. Their return was not, however,
stained by bloodshed, although the Calvinists were

425

CELEBRATED CRIMES

reviled in the open street. A few stabs from a
dagger or shots from an arquebus might, however,
have been better; such wounds heal while mocking
words rankle in the memory.

On the morrow of Michaelmas Day — that is, on
the 31st September 1567 — a number of conspirators
might have been seen issuing from a house and
spreading themselves through the streets, crying
" To arms ! Down with the Papists ! " Captain
Bouillargues was taking his revenge.

As the Catholics were attacked unawares, they
did not make even a show of resistance : a number
of Protestants — those who possessed the best arms
— rushed to the house of Guy-Rochette, the first
consul, and seized the keys of the city. Guy-
Rochette, startled by the cries of the crowds, had
looked out of the window, and seeing a furious mob
approaching his house, and feeling that their rage
was directed against himself, had taken refuge
with his brother Gregoire. There, recovering his
courage and presence of mind, he recalled the
important responsibilities attached to his office, and
resolving to fulfil them whatever might happen,
hastened to consult with the other magistrates, but
as they all gave him very excellent reasons for not
meddling, he soon felt there was no dependence to
be placed on such cowards and traitors. He next
repaired to the episcopal palace, where he found

426

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

the bishop surrounded by the principal Catholics
of the town, all on their knees offering up earnest
prayers to Heaven, and awaiting martyrdom. Guy-
Rochette joined them, and the prayers were
continued.

A few instants later fresh noises were heard in
the street, and the gates of the palace court groaned
under blows of axe and crowbar. Hearing these
alarming sounds, the bishop, forgetting that it was
his duty to set a brave example, fled through a
breach in the wall of the next house; but Guy-
Rochette and his companions valiantly resolved not
to run away, but to await their fate with patience.
The gates soon yielded, and the courtyard and
palace were filled with Protestants : at their head
appeared Captain Bouillargues, sword in hand.
Guy-Rochette and those with him were seized and
secured in a room under the charge of four guards,
and the palace was looted. Meantime another band
of insurgents had attacked the house of the vicar-
general, John Pebereau, whose body pierced by
seven stabs of a dagger was thrown out of a
window, the same fate as was meted out to Admiral
Coligny eight years later at the hands of the Cath-
olics. In the house a sum of 800 crowns was found
and taken. The two bands then uniting, rushed to
the cathedral, which they sacked for the second time.

Thus the entire day passed in murder and pillage :
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CELEBRATED CRIMES

when night came the large number of prisoners sc
imprudently taken began to be felt as an incum-
brance by the insurgent chiefs, who therefore
resolved to take advantage of the darkness to get
rid of them without causing too much excitement
in the city. They were therefore gathered together
from the various houses in which they had been
confined, and were brought to a large hall in the
Hotel dc Ville, capable of containing from four to
five hundred persons, and which was soon full. An
irregular tribunal arrogating to itself powers of
life and death was formed, and a clerk was
appointed to register its decrees. A list of all the
prisoners was given him, a cross placed before a
name indicating that its bearer was condemned to
death, and, list in hand, he went from group to
group calling out the names distinguished by the
fatal sign. Those thus sorted out were then con-
ducted to a spot which had been chosen beforehand
as the place of execution.

This was the palace courtyard in the middle of
which yawned a well twenty-four feet in circum-
ference and fifty deep. The fanatics thus found a
grave ready digged as it were to their hand, and to
save time, made use of it.

The unfortunate Catholics, led thither in groups,
were either stabbed with daggers or mutilated with
axes, and the bodies thrown down the well. Guy-

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MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

Rochette was one of the first to be dragged up. For
himself he asked neither mercy nor favour, but he
begged that the life of his young brother might
be spared, whose only crime was the bond of blood
which united them; but the assassins, paying no
heed to his prayers, struck down both man and
boy and flung them into the well. The corpse of
the vicar-general, who had been killed the day
before, was in its turn dragged thither by a rope
and added to the others. All night the massacre
went on, the crimsoned water rising in the well as
corpse after corpse was thrown in, till, at break of
day, it overflowed, one hundred and twenty bodies
being then hidden in its depths.

Next day, October ist, the scenes of tumult were
renewed : from early dawn Captain Bouillargues
ran from street to street crying, " Courage, com-
rades! Montpellier, Pezenas, Aramon, Beaucaire,
Saint-Andeol, and Villeneuve are taken, and are on
our side. Cardinal de Lorraine is dead, and the
king is in our power." This aroused the failing
energies of the assassins. They joined the captain,
and demanded that the houses round the palace
should be searched, as it was almost certain that
the bishop, who had, as may be remembered,
escaped the day before, had taken refuge in one
of them. This being agreed to, a house-to-house
visitation was begun: when the house of M. de

429

CELEBRATED CRIMES

Sauvignargues was reached, he confessed that the
bishop was in his cellar, and proposed to treat with
Captain Bouillargues for a ransom. This propo-
sition being considered reasonable, was accepted,
and after a short discussion the sum of 120 crowns
was agreed on. The bishop laid down every penny
he had about him, his servants were despoiled, and
the sum made up by the Sieur de Sauvignargues,
who having the bishop in his house kept him caged.
The prelate, however, made no objection, although
under other circumstances he would have regarded
this restraint as the height of impertinence; but as
it was he felt safer in M. de Sauvignargues' cellar
than in the palace.

But the secret of the worthy prelate's hiding-
place was but badly kept by those with whom he
had treated ; for in a few moments a second crowd
appeared, hoping to obtain a second ransom. Un-
fortunately, the Sieur de Sauvignargues, the bishop,
and the bishop's servants had stripped themselves
of all their ready money to make up the first, so
the master of the house, fearing for his own safety,
having barricaded the doors, got out into a lane
and escaped, leaving the bishop to his fate. The
Huguenots climbed in at the windows, crying, " No
quarter ! Down with the Papists ! " The bishop's
servants were cut down, the bishop himself dragged
out of the cellar and thrown into the street. There

430

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

his rings and crozier were snatched from him; he
was stripped of his clothes and arrayed in a
grotesque and ragged garment which chanced to be
at hand ; his mitre was replaced by a peasant's cap ;
and in this condition he was dragged back to the
palace and placed on the brink of the well to be
thrown in. One of the assassins drew attention to
the fact that it was already full. " Pooh ! " replied
another, " they won't mind a little crowding for a
bishop." Meantime the prelate, seeing he need
expect no mercy from man, threw himself on his
knees and commended his soul to God. Suddenly,
however, one of those who had shown himself most
ferocious during the massacre, Jean Coussinal by
name, was touched as if by miracle with a feeling
of compassion at the sight of so much resignation,
and threw himself between the bishop and those
about to strike, and declaring that whoever touched
the prelate must first overcome himself, took him
under his protection, his comrades retreating in
astonishment. Jean Coussinal raising the bishop,
carried him in his arms into a neighbouring house,
and drawing his sword, took his stand on the
threshold.

The assassins, however, soon recovered from
their surprise, and reflecting that when all was said
and done they were fifty to one, considered it would
be shameful to let themselves be intimidated by a

431

CELEBRATED CRIMES

single opponent, so they advanced again on Cous-
sinal, who with a back-handed stroke cut off the
head of the first-comer. The cries upon this
redoubled, and two or three shots were fired at the
obstinate defender of the poor bishop, but they all
missed aim. At that moment Captain Bouillargues
passed by, and seeing one man attacked by fifty,
inquired into the cause. He was told of Coussinal's
odd determination to save the bishop. " He is quite
right," said the captain; "the bishop has paid
ransom, and no one has any right to touch him."
Saying this, he walked up to Coussinal, gave him
his hand, and the two entered the house, returning
in a few moments with the bishop between them.
In this order they crossed the town, followed by
the murmuring crowd, who were, however, afraid
to do more than murmur; at the gate the bishop
was provided with an escort and let go, his defend-
ers remaining there till he was out of sight.

The massacres went on during the whole of the
second day, though towards evening the search for
victims relaxed somewhat; but still many isolated
acts of murder took place during the night. On
the morrow, being tired of killing, the people began
to destroy, and this phase lasted a long time, it
being less fatiguing to throw stones about than
corpses. All the convents, all the monasteries, all
the houses of the priests and canons were attacked

432

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

in turn; nothing was spared except the cathedral,
before which axes and crowbars seemed to lose their
power, and the church of Ste. Eugenie, which was
turned into a powder-magazine. The day of the
great butchery was called " La Michelade" because
it took place the day after Michaelmas, and as all
this happened in the year 1567 the Massacre of St.
Bartholomew must be regarded as a plagiarism.

At last, however, with the help of M. Damville,
the Catholics again got the upper hand, and it was
the turn of the Protestants to fly. They took refuge
in the Cevennes. From the beginning of the
troubles the Cevennes had been the asylum of those
who suffered for the Protestant faith; and still the
plains are Papist, and the mountains Protestant.
When the Catholic party is in the ascendant at
Nimes, the plain seeks the mountain; when the
Protestants come into power, the mountain comes
down into the plain.

However, vanquished and fugitive though they
were, the Calvinists did not lose courage: in exile
one day, they felt sure their luck would turn the
next; and while the Catholics were burning or
hanging them in effigy for contumacy, they were
before a notary, dividing the property of their
executioners.

But it was not enough for them to buy or sell this
property amongst each other, they wanted to enter

433

CELEBRATED CRIMES

into possession; they thought of nothing else, and
in 1569 — that is, in the eighteenth month of their
exile — they attained their wish in the following
manner : —

One day the exiles perceived a carpenter belong-
ing to a little village called Cauvisson approaching
their place of refuge. He desired to speak to M.
Nicolas de Calviere, seigneur de St. Cosme, and
brother of the president, who was known to be a
very enterprising man. To him the carpenter, whose
name was Maduron, made the following proposi-
tion : —

In the moat of Nimes, close to the Gate of the
Carmelites, there was a grating through which the
waters from the fountain found vent. Maduron
offered to file through the bars of this grating in
such a manner that some fine night it could be lifted
out so as to allow a band of armed Protestants to
gain access to the city. Nicolas de Calviere
approving of this plan, desired that it should be
carried out at once; but the carpenter pointed out
that it would be necessary to wait for stormy
weather, when the waters swollen by the rain would
by their noise drown the sound of the file. This
precaution was doubly necessary as the box of the
sentry was almost exactly above the grating. M.
de Calviere tried to make Maduron give way; but
the latter, who was risking more than anyone else,

434

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

was firm. So whether mey liked it or not, de
Calviere and the rest had to await his good pleasure.

Some days later rainy weather set in, and as
usual the fountain became fuller; Maduron seeing
that the favourable moment had arrived, glided at
night into the moat and applied his file, a friend of
his who was hidden on the ramparts above pulling a
cord attached to Maduron's arm every time the
sentinel, in pacing his narrow round, approached the
spot. Before break of day the work was well begun.
Maduron then obliterated all traces of his file by
daubing the bars with mud and wax, and withdrew.
For three consecutive nights he returned to his task,
taking the same precautions, and before the fourth
was at an end he found that by means of a slight
effort the grating could be removed. That was all
that was needed, so he gave notice to Messire
Nicolas de Calviere that the moment had arrived.

Everything was favourable to the undertaking:
as there was no moon, the next night was chosen
to carry out the plan, and as soon as it was dark
Messire Nicolas de Calviere set out with his men.
who, slipping down into the moat without noise,
crossed, the water being up to their belts, climbed
up the other side, and crept along at the foot of the
wall till they reached the grating without being per-
ceived. There Maduron was waiting, and as soon
as he caught sight of them he gave a slight blow to

435

CELEBRATED CRIMES

the loose bars, which fell, and the whole party
entered the drain, led by de Calviere, and soon found
themselves at the farther end — that is to say, in the
Place de la Fontaine. They immediately formed
into companies twenty strong, four of which
hastened to the principal gates, while the others
patrolled the streets shouting, " The city taken !
Down with the Papists ! A new world ! " Hear-
ing this, the Protestants in the city recognised their
co-religionists, and the Catholics their opponents :
but whereas the former had been warned and were
on the alert, the latter were taken by surprise ; con-
sequently they offered no resistance, which, how-
ever, did not prevent bloodshed. M. de St. Andre,
the governor of the town, who during his short
period of office had drawn the bitter hatred of the
Protestants on him, was shot dead in his bed, and
his body being flung out of the window, was torn
in pieces by the populace. The work of murder
went on all night, and on the morrow the victors
in their turn began an organised persecution, which
fell more heavily on the Catholics than that to
which they had subjected the Protestants; for, as
we have explained above, the former could only find
shelter in the plain, while the latter used the
Cevennes as a stronghold.

It was about this time that the peace, which was
called, as we have said, " the insecurely seated,"

436

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

was concluded. Two years later this name was
justified by the Massacre of St. Bartholomew.

When this event took place, the South, strange as
it may seem, looked on : in Nimes both Catholics and
Protestants, stained with the other's blood, faced
each other, hand on hilt, but without drawing weap-
on. It was as if they were curious to see how the
Parisians would get through. The massacre had
one result, however, the union of the principal cities
of the South and West: Montpellier, Uzes, Mon-
tauban, and La Rochelle, with Nimes at their head,
formed a civil and military league to last, as is
declared in the Act of Federation, until God should
raise up a sovereign to be the defender of the
Protestant faith. In the year 1775 the Protestants
of the South began to turn their eyes towards Henri
rv as the coming defender.

At that date Nimes, setting an example to the
other cities of the League, deepened her moats,
blew up her suburbs, and added to the height of
her ramparts. Night and day the work of perfect-
ing the means of defence went on; the guard at
every gate was doubled, and knowing how often a
city had been taken by surprise, not a hole through
which a Papist could creep was left in the fortifica-
tions. In dread of what the future might bring,
Nimes even committed sacrilege against the past,
and partly demolished the Temple of Diana and

437

CELEBRATED CRIMES

mutilated the amphitheatre — of which one gigantic
stone was sufficient to form a section of the wall.
During one truce the crops were sown, during
another they were garnered in, and so things went
on while the reign of the Mignons lasted. At length
the prince raised up by God, whom the Huguenots
had waited for so long, appeared ; Henri iv ascended
the throne.

But once seated, Henri found himself in the same
difficulty as had confronted Octavius fifteen cen-
turies earlier, and which confronted Louis Philippe
three centuries later — that is to say, having been
raised to sovereign power by a party which was not
in the majority, he soon found himself obliged to
separate from this party and to abjure his religious
beliefs, as others have abjured or will yet abjure
their political beliefs; consequently, just as Octavius
had his Antony, and Louis Philippe was to have his
Lafayette, Henri iv was to have his Biron. When
monarchs are in this position they can no longer
have a will of their own or personal likes and dis-
likes ; they submit to the force of circumstances, and
feel compelled to rely on the masses ; no sooner are
they freed from the ban under which they laboured
than they are obliged to bring others under it.

However, before having recourse to extreme
measures, Henri iv with soldierly frankness gath-
ered round him all those who had been his comrades

438

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

of old in war and in religion; he spread out before
them a map of France, and showed them that hardly
a tenth of the immense number of its inhabitants
were Protestants, and that even that tenth was
shut up in the mountains ; some in Dauphine, which
had been won for them by their three principal
leaders, Baron des Adrets, Captain Montbrun, and
Lesdiguieres ; others in the Cevennes, which had
become Protestant through their great preachers,
Maurice Secenat and Guillaume Moget; and the
rest in the mountains of Navarre, whence he himself
had come. He recalled to them further that when-
ever they ventured out of their mountains they had
been beaten in every battle, at Jarnac, at Moncon-
tour, and at Dreux. He concluded by explaining
how impossible it was for him, such being the case,
to entrust the guidance of the State to their party;
but he offered them instead three things, viz., his
purse to supply their present needs, the Edict of
Nantes to assure their future safety, and fortresses
to defend themselves should this edict one day be
revoked, for with profound insight the grandfather
divined the grandson : Henri iv feared Louis xiv.

The Protestants took what they were offered, but
of course like all who accept benefits they went
away filled with discontent because they had not
been given more.

Although the Protestants ever afterwards looked
439

CELEBRATED CRIMES

on Henri iv as a renegade, his reign nevertheless
was their golden age, and while it lasted Nimes was
quiet; for, strange to say, the Protestants took no
revenge for St. Bartholomew, contenting themselves
with debarring the Catholics from the open exer-
cise of their religion, but leaving them free to use
all its rites and ceremonies in private. They even
permitted the procession of the Host through the
streets in case of illness, provided it took place at
night. Of course death would not always wait for
darkness, and the Host was sometimes carried to
the dying during the day, not without danger to
the priest, who, however, never let himself be
deterred thereby from the performance of his duty;
indeed, it is of the essence of religious devotion to
be inflexible, and few soldiers, however brave, have
equalled the martyrs in courage.

During this time, taking advantage of the truce
to hostilities and the impartial protection meted out
to all without distinction by the Constable Damville,
the Carmelites and Capuchins, the Jesuits and monks
of all orders and colours, began by degrees to return
to Nimes; without any display, it is true, rather in
a surreptitious manner, preferring darkness to day-
light; but however this may be, in the course of
three or four years they had all regained foothold
in the town ; only now they were in the position in
which the Protestants had been formerly, they were

440

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

without churches, as their enemies were in pos-
session of all the places of worship. It also happened
that a Jesuit high in authority, named Pere Coston,
preached with such success that the Protestants, not
wishing to be beaten, but desirous of giving word
for word, summoned to their aid the Rev. Jeremie
Ferrier, of Alais, who at the moment was regarded
as the most eloquent preacher they had. Needless
to say, Alais was situated in the mountains, that
inexhaustible source of Huguenot eloquence. At
once the controversial spirit was aroused ; it did not
as yet amount to war, but still less could it be called
peace : people were no longer assassinated, but they
were anathematised ; the body was safe, but the soul
was consigned to damnation: the days as they
passed were used by both sides to keep their hand
in, in readiness for the moment when the massacres
should again begin.

441

CHAPTER II

THE death of Henri iv led to new conflicts, in
which although at first success was on the
side of the Protestants it by degrees went over to
the Catholics; for with the accession of Louis xiii
Richelieu had taken possession of the throne : be-
side the king sat the cardinal ; under the purple
mantle gleamed the red robe. It was at this crisis
that Henri de Rohan rose to eminence in the South.
He was one of the most illustrious representatives
of that great race which, allied as it was to the
royal houses of Scotland, France, Savoy, and Lor-
raine, had taken as their device, " Be king I cannot,
prince I will not, Rohan I am."

Henri de Rohan was at this time about forty
years of age, in the prime of life. In his youth, in
order to perfect his education, he had visited Eng-
land, Scotland, and Italy. In England Elizabeth
had called him her knight; in Scotland James vi
had asked him to stand godfather to his son, after-
wards Charles i; in Italy he had been so deep in
the confidence of the leaders of men, and so
thoroughly initiated into the politics of the princi-

442

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

pal cities, that it was commonly said that, after
Machiavel, he was the greatest authority in these
matters. He had returned to France in the lifetime
of Henry iv, and had married the daughter of
Sully, and after Henri's death had commanded the
Swiss and the Grison regiments at the siege of
Juliers. This was the man whom the king was so
imprudent as to offend by refusing him the re-
version of the office of governor of Poitou, which
was then held by Sully, his father-in-law. In order
to revenge himself for the neglect he met with at
court, as he states in his Memoires with military
ingenuousness, he espoused the cause of Conde
with all his heart, being also drawn in this direction
by his liking for Conde's brother and his conse-
quent desire to help those of Conde's religion.

From this day on street disturbances and angry
disputes assumed another aspect : they took in a
larger area and were not so readily appeased. It
was no longer an isolated band of insurgents which
roused a city, but rather a conflagration which
spread over the whole South, and a general up-
rising which was almost a civil war.

This state of things lasted for seven or eight
years, and during this time Rohan, abandoned by
Chatillon and La Force, who received as the reward
of their defection the field marshal's baton, pressed
by Conde, his old friend, and by Montmorency,

443

CELEBRATED CRIMES

his consistent rival, performed prodigies of courage
and miracles of strategy. At last, without soldiers,
without ammunition, without money, he still ap-
peared to Richelieu to be so redoubtable that all the
conditions of surrender he demanded were granted.
The maintenance of the Edict of Nantes was guar-
anteed, all the places of worship were to be restored
to the Reformers, and a general amnesty granted
to himself and his partisans. Furthermore, he ob-
tained what was an unheard-of thing until then,
an indemnity of 300,000 livres * for his expenses
during the rebellion; of which sum he allotted
240,000 livres to his co-religionists — that is to say,
more than three-quarters of the entire amount —
and kept, for the purpose of restoring his various
chateaux and setting his domestic establishment,
which had been destroyed during the war, again
on foot, only 60,000 livres. This treaty was signed
on July 27th, 1629.

The Due de Richelieu, to whom no sacrifice was
too great in order to attain his ends, had at last
reached the goal, but the peace cost him nearly
40,000,000 livres; on the other hand, Saintonge,
Poitou, and Languedoc had submitted, and the
chiefs of the houses of La Tremouille, Conde,
Bouillon, Rohan, and Soubise had come to terms
with him; organised armed opposition had disap-

1livre= franc.
444

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

peared, and the lofty manner of viewing matters
natural to the cardinal duke prevented him from
noticing private enmity. He therefore left Nimes
free to manage her local affairs as she pleased, and
very soon the old order, or rather disorder, reigned
once more within her walls. At last Richelieu died,
and Louis xiii soon followed him, and the long
minority of his successor, with its embarrassments,
left to Catholics and Protestants in the South more
complete liberty than ever to carry on the great
duel which down to our own days has never ceased.
But from this period, each flux and reflux bears
more and more the peculiar character of the party
which for the moment is triumphant; when the
Protestants get the upper hand, their vengeance is
marked by brutality and rage; when the Catholics
are victorious, the retaliation is full of hypocrisy
and greed. The Protestants pull down churches
and monasteries, expel the monks, burn the cruci-
fixes, take the body of some criminal from the
gallows, nail it on a cross, pierce its side, put a
crown of thorns round its temples and set it up
in the market-place — an effigy of Jesus on Calvary.
The Catholics levy contributions, take back what
they had been deprived of, exact indemnities, and
although ruined by each reverse, are richer than
ever after each victory. The Protestants act in
the light of day, melting down the church bells

445

CELEBRATED CRIMES

to malce cannon to the sound of the drum, violate
agreements, warm themselves with wood taken
from the houses of the cathedral clergy, affix their
theses to the cathedral doors, beat the priests who
carry the Holy Sacrament to the dying, and, to
crown all other insults, turn churches into slaugh-
ter-houses and sewers.

The Catholics, on the contrary, march at night,
and, slipping in at the gates which have been left
ajar for them, make their bishop president of the
Council, put Jesuits at the head of the college,
buy converts with money from the treasury, and
as they always have influence at court, begin by
excluding the Calvinists from favour, hoping soon
to deprive them of justice.

At last, on the 31st of December, 1657, a final
struggle took place, in which the Protestants were
overcome, and were only saved from destruction
because from the other side of the Channel, Crom-
well exerted himself in their favour, writing with
his own hand at the end of a despatch relative to
the affairs of Austria, " I learn that there have
been popular disturbances in a town of Languedoc
called Nimes, and I beg that order may be re-
stored with as much mildness as possible, and with-
out shedding of blood." As, fortunately for the
Protestants, Mazarin had need of Cromwell at
that moment, torture was forbidden, and nothing

446

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

allowed but annoyances of all kinds. These hence-
forward were not only innumerable, but went on
without a pause: the Catholics, faithful to their
system of constant encroachment, kept up an in-
cessant persecution, in which they were soon en-
couraged by the numerous ordinances issued by
Louis xiv. The grandson of Henri iv could not
so far forget all ordinary respect as to destroy at
once the Edict of Nantes, but he tore off clause
after clause.

In 1630 — that is, a year after the peace with
Rohan had been signed in the preceding reign —
Chalons-sur-Saone had resolved that no Protestant
should be allowed to take any part in the manu-
factures of the town.

In 1643, s^x months after the accession of Louis
xrv, the laundresses of Paris made a rule that the
wives and daughters of Protestants were unworthy
to be admitted to the freedom of their respectable
guild.

In 1654, just one year after he had attained hfs
majority, Louis xiv consented to the imposition of
a tax on the town of Nimes of 4000 francs to-
wards the support of the Catholic and the Prot-
estant hospitals ; and instead of allowing each
party to contribute to the support of its own hospi-
tal, the money was raised in one sum, so that, of
the money paid by the Protestants, who were

447

Dumas — Vol. 2 — 2

CELEBRATED CRIMES

twice as numerous as the Catholics, two-sixths
went to their enemies. On August 9th of the
same year a decree of the Council ordered that
all the artisan consuls should be Catholics; on the
1 6th September another decree forbade Protestants
to send deputations to the king; lastly, on the 20th
of December, a further decree declared that all hos-
pitals should be administered by Catholic consuls
alone.

In 1662 Protestants were commanded to bury
their dead either at dawn or after dusk, and a
special clause of the decree fixed the number
of persons who might attend a funeral at ten
only.

In 1663 the Council of State issued decrees
prohibiting the practice of their religion by the
Reformers in one hundred and forty-two com-
munes in the dioceses of Nimes, Uzes, and Mendes,
and ordering the demolition of their meeting-
houses.

In 1664 this regulation was extended to the
meeting-houses of Alengon and Montauban, as well
as their small place of worship in Nimes. On the
17th July of the same year the Parliament of
Rouen forbade the master-mercers to engage any
more Protestant workmen or apprentices when the
number already employed had reached the pro-
portion of one Protestant to fifteen Catholics; on

448

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

the 24th of the same month the Council of State
declared all certificates of mastership held by a
Protestant invalid from whatever source derived;
and in October reduced to two the number of
Protestants who might be employed at the
mint.

In 1665 the regulation imposed on the mercers
was extended to the goldsmiths.

In 1666 a royal declaration, revising the decrees
of Parliament, was published, and Article 31 pro-
vided that the offices of clerk to the consulates,
or secretary to a guild of watchmakers, or porter
in a municipal building, could only be held by
Catholics; while in Article 33 it was ordained that
when a procession carrying the Host passed a place
of worship belonging to the so-called Reformers,
the worshippers should stop their psalm-singing
till the procession had gone by; and lastly, in
Article 34 it was enacted that the houses and other
buildings belonging to those who were of the Re-
formed religion might, at the pleasure of the town
authorities, be draped with cloth or otherwise deco-
rated on any religious Catholic festival.

In 1669 the Chambers appointed by the Edict of
Nantes in the Parliaments of Rouen and Paris
Were suppressed, as well as the articled clerkships
connected therewith, and the clerkships in the
Record Office; and in August of the same year,

449

CELEBRATED CRIMES

when the emigration of Protestants was just be-
ginning, an edict was issued, of which the follow-
ing is a clause: —

"Whereas many of our subjects have gone to
foreign countries, where they continue to follow
their various trades and occupations, even working
as shipwrights, or taking service as sailors, till at
length they feel at home and determine never to
return to France, marrying abroad and acquiring
property of every description : We hereby forbid
any member of the so-called Reformed Church to
leave this kingdom without our permission, and
we command those who have already left France
to return forthwith within her boundaries."

In 1670 the king excluded physicians of the
Reformed faith from the office of dean of the col-
lege of Rouen, and allowed only two Protestant
doctors within its precincts. In 1671 a decree was
published commanding the arms of France to be
removed from all the places of worship belonging
to the pretended Reformers. In 1680 a proclama-
tion from the king closed the profession of mid-
wife to women of the Reformed faith. In 1681
those who renounced the Protestant religion were
exempted for two years from all contributions to-
wards the support of soldiers sent to their town,

45°

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

and were for the same period relieved from the
duty of giving them board and lodging. In the
same year the college of Sedan was closed — the
only college remaining in the entire kingdom at
which Calvinist children could receive instruction.
In 1682 the king commanded Protestant notaries,
procurators, ushers, and Serjeants to lay down their
offices, declaring them unfit for such professions;
and in September of the same year three months
only were allowed them for the sale of the reversion
of the said offices. In 1684 the Council of State
extended the preceding regulations to those Protes-
tants holding the title of honorary secretary to the
king, and in August of the same year Protestants
were declared incapable of serving on a jury of
experts.

In 1685 the provost of merchants in Paris or-
dered all Protestant privileged merchants in that
city to sell their privileges within a month. And in
October of the same year the long series of perse-
cutions, of which we have omitted many, reached
its culminating point — the Revocation of the Edict
of Nantes. Henri iv, who foresaw this result, had
hoped that it would have occurred in another man-
ner, so that his co-religionists would have been able
to retain their fortresses; but what was actually
done was that the strong places were first taken
away, and then came the Revocation; after which

45i

O s g e>

CELEBRATED CRIMES

the Calvinists found themselves completely at the
mercy of their mortal enemies.

From 1669, when Louis first threatened to aim
a fatal blow at the civil rights of the Huguenots, by
abolishing the equal partition of the Chambers be-
tween the two parties, several deputations had been
sent to him praying him to stop the course of his
persecutions; and in order not to give him any
fresh excuse for attacking their party, these deputa-
tions addressed him in the most submissive manner,
as the following fragment from an address will
prove : —

" In the name of God, sire," said the Protestants
to the king, "listen to the last breath of our dying
liberty, have pity on our sufferings, have pity on
the great number of your poor subjects who daily
water their bread with their tears: they are all
filled with burning zeal and inviolable loyalty to
you; their love for your august person is only
equalled by their respect ; history bears witness that
they contributed in no small degree to place your
great and magnanimous ancestor on his rightful
throne, and since your miraculous birth they have
never done anything worthy of blame; they might
indeed use much stronger terms, but your Majesty
has spared their modesty by addressing to them on
many occasions words of praise which they would
never have ventured to apply to themselves; these

452

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

your subjects place their sole trust in your sceptre
for refuge and protection on earth, and their in-
terest as well as their duty and conscience impels
them to remain attached to the service of your Maj-
esty with unalterable devotion."

But, as we have seen, nothing could restrain the
triumvirate which held the power just then, and
thanks to the suggestions of Pere Lachaise and
Madame de Maintenon, Louis xiv determined to
gain heaven by means of wheel and stake.

As we see, for the Protestants, thanks to these
numerous decrees, persecution began at the cradle
and followed them to the grave.

As a boy, a Huguenot could enter no public
school; as a youth, no career was open to him; he
could become neither mercer nor concierge, neither
apothecary nor physician, neither lawyer nor consul.
As a man, he had no sacred house of prayer; no
registrar would inscribe his marriage or the birth
of his children; hourly his liberty and his conscience
were ignored. If he ventured to worship God by
the singing of psalms, he had to be silent as the Host
was carried past outside. When a Catholic festival
occurred, he was forced not only to swallow his rage
but to let his house be hung with decorations in
sign of joy; if he had inherited a fortune from his
fathers, having neither social standing nor civil
rights, it slipped gradually out of his hands, and

453

CELEBRATED CRIMES

went to support the schools and hospitals of his foes.
Having reached the end of his life, his deathbed
was made miserable; for dying in the faith of his
fathers, he could not be laid to rest beside them,
and like a pariah he would be carried to his grave
at night, no more than ten of those near and dear
to him being allowed to follow his coffin.

Lastly, if at any age whatever he should attempt
to quit the cruel soil on which he had no right to be
born, to live, or to die, he would be declared a rebel,
his goods would be confiscated, and the lightest
penalty that he had to expect, if he ever fell into
the hands of his enemies, was to row for the rest of
his life in the galleys of the king, chained between
a murderer and a forger.

Such a state of things was intolerable: the cries
of one man are lost in space, but the groans of a
whole population are like a storm; and this time,
as always, the tempest gathered in the mountains,
and the rumblings of the thunder began to be heard.

First there were texts written by invisible hands
on city walls, on the signposts and cross-roads, on
the crosses in the cemeteries : these warnings, like
the Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin of Belshazzar,
even pursued the persecutors into the midst of their
feasts and orgies.

Now it was the threat, "Jesus came not to send
peace, but a sword." Then this consolation, " For

454

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

where two or three are gathered together in My
name, there am I in the midst of them." Or per-
haps it was this appeal for united action which was
soon to become a summons to revolt, " That which
we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that
ye also may have fellowship with us."

And before these promises, taken from the New
Testament, the persecuted paused, and then went
home inspired by faith in the prophets, who spake,
as St. Paul says in his First Epistle to the Thessa-
lonians, "not the word of men but the word of God."

Very soon these words became incarnate, and
what the prophet Joel foretold came to pass : " Your
sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old
men shall dream dreams, your young men shall
see visions, . . . and I will show wonders in the
heavens and in the earth, blood and fire, . . . and it
shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the
name of the Lord shall be delivered."

In 1696 reports began to circulate that men had
had visions; being able to see what was going on
in the most distant parts, and that the heavens
themselves opened to their eyes. While in this
ecstatic state they were insensible to pain when
pricked with either pin or blade; and when, on re-
covering consciousness, they were questioned they
could remember nothing.

The first of these was a woman from Vivarais,

455

CELEBRATED CRIMES

whose origin was unknown. She went about from
town to town, shedding tears of blood. M. de
Baville, intendant of Languedoc, had her arrested
and brought to Montpellier. There she was con-
demned to death and burnt at the stake, her tears
of blood being dried by fire.

After her came a second fanatic, for so these
popular prophets were called. He was born at
Mazillon, his name was Laquoite, and he was twenty
years of age. The gift of prophecy had come to
him in a strange manner. This is the story told
about him : — " One day, returning from Languedoc,
where he had been engaged in the cultivation of
silkworms, on reaching the bottom of the hill of
St. Jean he found a man lying on the ground trem-
bling in every limb. Moved by pity, he stopped and
asked what ailed him. The man replied, 'Throw
yourself on your knees, my son, and trouble not
yourself about me, but learn how to attain salvation
and save your brethren. This can only be done by
the communion of the Holy Ghost, who is in me,
and whom by the grace of God I can bestow on you.
Approach and receive this gift in a kiss.' At these
words the unknown kissed the young man on the
mouth, pressed his hand and disappeared, leaving
the other trembling in his turn; for the spirit of
God was in him, and being inspired he spread the
word abroad."

45^

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

A third fanatic, a prophetess, raved about the
parishes of St. Andeol de Clerguemont and St.
Frazal de Vantalon, but she addressed herself
principally to recent converts, to whom she preached
concerning the Eucharist that in swallowing the
consecrated wafer they had swallowed a poison
as venomous as the head of the basilisk, that they
had bent the knee to Baal, and that no penitence
on their part could be great enough to save them.
These doctrines inspired such profound terror that
the Rev. Father Louvreloeil himself tells us that
Satan by his efforts succeeded in nearly emptying
the churches, and that at the following Easter
celebrations there were only half as many com-
municants as the preceding year.

Such a state of licence, which threatened to
spread farther and farther, awoke the religious
solicitude of Messire Francois Langlade de Duc-
hayla, Prior of Laval, Inspector of Missions of
Gevaudan, and Arch-priest of the Cevennes. He
therefore resolved to leave his residence at Mende
and to visit the parishes in which heresy had taken
the strongest hold, in order to oppose it by every
means which God and the king had put in his
power.

The Abbe Duchayla was a younger son of the
noble house of Langlade, and by the circumstances
of his birth, in spite of his soldierly instincts, had

457

CELEBRATED CRIMES

been obliged to leave epaulet and sword to his elder
brother, and himself assume cassock and stole.
On leaving the seminary, he espoused the cause
of the Church militant with all the ardour of his
temperament. Perils to encounter, foes to fight, a
religion to force on others, were necessities to this
fiery character, and as everything at the moment
was quiet in France, he had embarked for India
with the fervent resolution of a martyr.

On reaching his destination, the young mission-
ary had found himself surrounded by circumstances
which were wonderfully in harmony with his celes-
tial longings : some of his predecessors had been
carried so far by religious zeal that the King of
Siam had put several to death by torture and had
forbidden any more missionaries to enter his do-
minions; but this, as we can easily imagine, only
excited still more the abbe's missionary fervour;
evading the watchfulness of the military, and re-
gardless of the terrible penalties imposed by the
king, he crossed the frontier, and began to preach
the Catholic religion to the heathen, many of whom
were converted.

One day he was surprised by a party of soldiers
in a little village in which he had been living for
three months, and in which nearly all the inhabi-
tants had abjured their false faith, and was brought
before the governor of Bankan, where instead of

458

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

denying his faith, he nobly defended Christianity
and magnified the name of God. He was handed
over to the executioners to be subjected to torture,
and suffered at their hands with resignation every-
thing that a human body can endure while yet re-
taining life, till at length his patience exhausted
their rage; and seeing him become unconscious,
they thought he was dead, and with mutilated
hands, his breast furrowed with wounds, his limbs
half worn through by heavy fetters, he was sus-
pended by the wrists to a branch of a tree and
abandoned. A pariah passing by cut him down
and succoured him, and reports of his martyrdom
having spread, the French ambassador demanded
justice with no uncertain voice, so that the King of
Siam, rejoicing that the executioners had stopped
short in time, hastened to send back to M. de Chau-
mont, the representative of Louis xiv, a mutilated
though still living man, instead of the corpse which
had been demanded.

At the time when Louis xiv was meditating the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes he felt that the
services of such a man would be invaluable to him,
so about 1632, Abbe Duchayla was recalled from
India, and a year later was sent to Mende, with
the titles of Arch-priest of the Cevennes and In-
spector of Missions.

Soon the abbe, who had been so much persecuted,
459

CELEBRATED CRIMES

became a persecutor, showing himself as insensible
to the sufferings of others as he had been inflexible
under his own. His apprenticeship to torture stood
him in such good stead that he became an inventor,
and not only did he enrich the torture chamber by
importing from India several scientifically con-
structed machines, hitherto unknown in Europe,
but he also designed many others. People told
with terror of reeds cut in the form of whistles
which the abbe pitilessly forced under the nails of
malignants; of iron pincers for tearing out their
beards, eyelashes, and eyebrows; of wicks steeped
in oil and wound round the fingers of a victim's
hands, and then set on fire so as to form a pair of
five-flamed candelabra ; of a case turning on a pivot
in which a man who refused to be converted was
sometimes shut up, the case being then made to
revolve rapidly till the victim lost consciousness;
and lastly of fetters used when taking prisoners
from one town to another, and brought to such
perfection, that when they were on the prisoner
could neither stand nor sit.

Even the most fervent panegyrists of Abbe
Duchayla spoke of him with bated breath, and
when he himself looked into his own heart and
recalled how often he had applied to the body the
power to bind and loose which God had only given
him over the soul, he was seized with strange

460

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

tremors, and falling on his knees with folded hands
and bowed head he remained for hours wrapt in
thought, so motionless that were it not for the
drops of sweat which stood on his brow he might
have been taken for a marble statue of prayer over
a tomb.

Moreover, this priest by virtue of the powers
with which he was invested, and feeling that he had
the authority of M. de Baville, intendant of Lan-
guedoc, and M. de Broglie, commander of the
troops, behind him, had done other terrible things.

He had separated children from father and
mother, and had shut them up in religious houses,
where they had been subjected to such severe chas-
tisement, by way of making them do penance for
the heresy of their parents, that many of them died
under it.

He had forced his way into the chamber of the
dying, not to bring consolation but menaces; and
bending over the bed, as if to keep back the Angel
of Death, he had repeated the words of the terrible
decree which provided that in case of the death of
a Huguenot without conversion, his memory should
be persecuted, and his body, denied Christian burial,
should be drawn on hurdles out of the city, and cast
on a dungheap.

Lastly, when with pious love children tried to
shield their parents in the death-agony from his

461

CELEBRATED CRIMES

threats, or dead from his justice, by carrying them,
dead or dying, to some refuge in which they might
hope to draw their last breath in peace or to obtain
Christian burial, he declared that anyone who should
open his door hospitably to such disobedience was
a traitor to religion, although among the heathen
such pity would have been deemed worthy of an
altar.

Such was the man raised up to punish, who went
on his way, preceded by terror, accompanied by
torture, and followed by death, through a country
already exhausted by long and bloody oppression,
and where at every step he trod on half repressed
religious hate, which like a volcano was ever ready
to burst out afresh, but always prepared for martyr-
dom. Nothing held him back, and years ago he had
had his grave hollowed out in the church of St.
Germain, choosing that church for his last long
sleep because it had been built by Pope Urban iv
when he was bishop of Mende.

Abbe Duchayla extended his visitation over six
months, during which every day was marked by
tortures and executions : several prophets were
burnt at the stake ; Franchise de Brez, she who had
preached that the Host contained a more venomous
poison than a basilisk's head, was hanged ; and
Laquoite, who had been confined in the citadel of
Montpellier, was on the point of being broken on

462

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

the wheel, when on the eve of his execution his cell
was found empty. No one could ever discover how
he escaped, and consequently his reputation rose
higher than ever, it being currently believed that,
led by the Holy Spirit as St. Peter by the angel, he
had passed through the guards invisible to all, leav-
ing his fetters behind.

This incomprehensible escape redoubled the se-
verity of the Arch-priest, till at last the prophets,
feeling that their only chance of safety lay in get-
ting rid of him, began to preach against him as
Antichrist, and advocate his death. The abbe was
warned of this, but nothing could abate his zeal.
In France as in India, martyrdom was his longed-
for goal, and with head erect and unfaltering step
he " pressed toward the mark."

At last, on the evening of the 24th of July, two
hundred conspirators met in a wood on the top of a
hill which overlooked the bridge of Montvert, near
which was the Arch-priest's residence. Their leader
was a man named Laporte, a native of Alais, who
had become a master-blacksmith in the pass of Deze.
He was accompanied by an inspired man, a former
wool-carder, born at Magistavols, Esprit Seguier by
name. This man was, after Laquoite, the most
highly regarded of the twenty or thirty prophets
who were at that moment going up and down the
Cevennes in every direction. The whole party was

463

CELEBRATED CRIMES

armed with scythes, halberts, and swords ; a few had
even pistols and guns.

On the stroke of ten, the hour fixed for their de-
parture, they all knelt down and with uncovered
heads began praying as fervently as if they were
about to perform some act most pleasing to God,
and their prayers ended, they marched down the hill
to the town, singing psalms, and shouting between
the verses to the townspeople to keep within their
homes, and not to look out of door or window on
pain of death.

The abbe was in his oratory when he heard the
mingled singing and shouting, and at the same mo-
ment a servant entered in great alarm, despite the
strict regulation of the Arch-priest that he was
never to be interrupted at his prayers. This man
announced that a body of fanatics was coming down
the hill, but the abbe felt convinced that it was only
an unorganised crowd which was going to try and
carry off six prisoners, at that moment in the ceps.1
These prisoners were three young men and three
girls in men's clothes, who had been seized just as
they were about to emigrate. As the abbe was al-
ways protected by a guard of soldiers, he sent for

1 A terrible kind of stocks — a beam split in two, no
notches being made for the legs : the victim's legs were
placed between the two pieces of wood, which were then,
by means of a vice at each end, brought gradually to-
gether.— Translator's Note.

464

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

the officer in command and ordered him to march
against the fanatics and disperse them. But the
officer was spared the trouble of obeying, for
the fanatics were already at hand. On reaching the
gate of the courtyard he heard them outside, and
perceived that they were making ready to burst it
in. Judging of their numbers by the sound of their
voices, he considered that far from attacking them,
he would have enough to do in preparing for de-
fence, consequently he bolted and barred the gate
on the inside, and hastily erected a barricade under
an arch leading to the apartments of the abbe. Just
as these preparations were complete, Esprit Seguier
caught sight of a heavy beam of wood lying in a
ditch; this was raised by a dozen men and used as
a battering-ram to force in the gate, which soon
showed a breach. Thus encouraged, the workers,
cheered by the chants of their comrades, soon got
the gate off the hinges, and thus the outside court
was taken. The crowd then loudly demanded the
release of the prisoners, using dire threats.

The commanding officer sent to ask the abbe what
he was to do ; the abbe replied that he was to fire on
the conspirators. This imprudent order was carried
out : one of the fanatics was killed on the spot, and
two wounded men mingled their groans with the
songs and threats of their comrades.

The barricade was next attacked, some using
465

CELEBRATED CRIMES

axes, others darting their swords and halberts
through the crevices and killing those behind; as
for those who had firearms, they climbed on the
shoulders of the others, and having fired at those
below, saved themselves by tumbling down again.
At the head of the besiegers were Laporte and
Esprit Seguier, one of whom had a father to avenge
and the other a son, both of whom had been done
to death by the abbe. They were not the only ones
of the party who were fired by the desire of ven-
geance; twelve or fifteen others were in the same
position.

The abbe in his room listened to the noise of the
struggle, and finding matters growing serious, he
gathered his household round him, and making
them kneel down, he told them to make their confes-
sion, that he might, by giving them absolution, pre-
pare them for appearing before God. The sacred
words had just been pronounced when the rioters
drew near, having carried the barricade, and driven
the soldiers to take refuge in a hall on the ground
floor just under the Arch-priest's room.

But suddenly the assault was stayed, some of the
men going to surround the house, others setting out
on a search for the prisoners. These were easily
found, for judging by what they could hear that
their brethren had come to their rescue, they shouted
as loudly as they could.

466

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

The unfortunate creatures had already passed a
whole week with their legs caught and pressed by
the cleft beams which formed these inexpressibly
painful stocks. When the unfortunate victims were
released, the fanatics screamed with rage at the
sight of their swollen bodies and half-broken bones.
None of the unhappy people were able to stand.
The attack on the soldiers was renewed, and these
being driven out of the lower hall, filled the stair-
case leading to the abbe's apartments, and offered
such determined resistance that their assailants were
twice forced to fall back. Laporte, seeing two of his
men killed and five or six wounded, called out loud-
ly, " Children of God, lay down your arms : this
way of going to work is too slow; let us burn the
abbey and all in it. To work ! to work ! " The ad-
vice was good, and they all hastened to follow it:
benches, chairs, and furniture of all sorts were heaped
up in the hall, a palliasse thrown on the top, and the
pile fired. In a moment the whole building was
ablaze, and the Arch-priest, yielding to the entreaties
of his servants, fastened his sheets to the window-
bars, and by their help dropped into the garden.
The drop was so great that he broke one of his
thigh bones, but dragging himself along on his hands
and one knee, he, with one of his servants, reached
a recess in the wall, while another servant was en-
deavouring to escape through the flames, thus fall-

467

CELEBRATED CRIMES

ing into the hands of the fanatics, who carried him
before their captain. Then cries of " The prophet!
the prophet ! " were heard on all sides. Esprit Si-
guier, feeling that something fresh had taken place,
came forward, still holding in his hand the blazing
torch with which he had set fire to the pile.

" Brother," asked Laporte, pointing to the prison-
er, " is this man to die? "

Esprit Seguier fell on his knees and covered his
face with his mantle, like Samuel, and sought the
Lord in prayer, asking to know His will.

In a short time he rose and said, " This man is
not to die; for inasmuch as he has showed mercy
to our brethren we must show mercy to him."

Whether this fact had been miraculously revealed
to Seguier, or whether he had gained his informa-
tion from other sources, the newly released prison-
ers confirmed its truth, calling out that the man
had indeed treated them with humanity. Just then
a roar as of a wild beast was heard : one of the
fanatics, whose brother had been put to death by
the abbe, had just caught sight of him, the whole
neighbourhood being lit up by the fire ; he was kneel-
ing in an angle of the wall, to which he had dragged
himself.

" Down with the son of Belial ! " shouted the
crowd, rushing towards the priest, who remained
kneeling and motionless like a marble statue. His

468

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

valet took advantage of the confusion to escape,
and got off easily; for the sight of him on whom
the general hate was concentrated made the Hugue-
nots forget everything else.

Esprit Seguier was the first to reach the priest,
and spreading his hands over him, he commanded
the others to hold back. " ' God desireth not the
death of a sinner,' " said he, " ' but rather that he
turn from his wickedness and live.' '

"No, no!" shouted a score of voices, refusing
obedience for the first time, perhaps, to an order
from the prophet ; " let him die without mercy, as
he struck without pity. Death to the son of Belial,
death ! "

" Silence ! " exclaimed the prophet in a terrible
voice, " and listen to the word of God from my
mouth. If this man will join us and take upon him
the duties of a pastor, let us grant him his life, that
he may henceforward devote it to the spread of the
true faith."

" Rather a thousand deaths than apostasy ! " an-
swered the priest.

" Die, then ! " cried Laporte, stabbing him ; " take
that for having burnt my father in Nimes."

And he passed on the dagger to Esprit Seguier.

Duchayla made neither sound nor gesture : it
would have seemed as if the dagger had been turned
by the priest's gown as by a coat of mail were it

469

CELEBRATED CRIMES

not that a thin stream of blood appeared. Raising
his eyes to heaven, he repeated the words of the
penitential psalm : " Out of the depths have I cried
unto Thee, O Lord ! Lord, hear my voice !"

Then Esprit Seguier raised his arm and struck
in his turn, saying, " Take that for my son, whom
you broke on the wheel at Montpellier."

And he passed on the dagger.

But this blow also was not mortal, only another
stream of blood appeared, and the abbe said in a fail-
ing voice, " Deliver me, O my Saviour, out of my
well-merited sufferings, and I will acknowledge their
justice; for I have been a man of blood."

The next who seized the dagger came near and
gave his blow, saying, " Take that for my brother,
whom you let die in the ceps."

This time the dagger pierced the heart, and the
abbe had only time to ejaculate, " Have mercy on
me, O God, according to Thy great mercy ! " before
he fell back dead.

But his death did not satisfy the vengeance of
those who had not been able to strike him living;
one by one they drew near and stabbed, each invok-
ing the shade of some dear murdered one and pro-
nouncing the same words of malediction.

In all, the body of the abbe received fifty-two
dagger thrusts, of which twenty-four would have
been mortal.

470

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

Thus perished, at the age of fifty-five, Messire
Frangois de Langlade Duchayla, prior of Laval, in-
spector of missions in Gevaudan, and Arch-priest
of the Cevennes and Mende.

Their vengeance thus accomplished, the mur-
derers felt that there was no more safety for them
in either city or plain, and fled to the mountains;
but in passing near the residence of M. de Laveze, a
Catholic nobleman of the parish of Molezon, one of
the fugitives recollected that he had heard that a
great number of firearms was kept in the house.
This seemed a lucky chance, for firearms were what
the Huguenots needed most of all. They therefore
sent two envoys to M. de Laveze to ask him to give
them at least a share of his weapons; but he, as a
good Catholic, replied that it was quite true that he
had indeed a store of arms, but that they were des-
tined to the triumph and not to the desecration of
religion, and that he would only give them up with
his life. With these words, he dismissed the en-
voys, barring his doors behind them.

But while this parley was going on the conspira-
tors had approached the chateau, and thus received
the valiant answer to their demands sooner than M.
de Laveze had counted on. Resolving not to leave
him time to take defensive measures, they dashed at
the house, and by standing on each other's shoulders
reached the room in which M. de Laveze and his en-

471

CELEBRATED CRIMES

tire family had taken refuge. In an instant the door
was forced, and the fanatics, still reeking with
the life-blood of Abbe Duchayla, began again
their work of death. No one was spared; neither
the master of the house, nor his brother, nor his
uncle, nor his sister, who knelt to the assassins in
vain ; even his old mother, who was eighty years of
age, having from her bed first witnessed the murder
of all her family, was at last stabbed to the heart,
though the butchers might have reflected that it was
hardly worth while thus to anticipate the arrival of
Death, who according to the laws of nature must
have been already at hand.

The massacre finished, the fanatics spread over
the castle, supplying themselves with arms and
under-linen, being badly in need of the latter; for
when they left their homes they had expected soon
to return, and had taken nothing with them. They
also carried off the copper kitchen utensils, intending
to turn them into bullets. Finally, they seized on a
sum of 5000 francs, the marriage-portion of M. de
Laveze's sister, who was just about to be married,
and thus laid the foundation of a war fund.

The news of these two bloody events soon reached
not only Nimes but all the countryside, and roused
the authorities to action. M. le Comte de Broglie
crossed the Upper Cevennes, and marched down to
the bridge of Montvert, followed by several com-

472

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

panies of fusiliers. From another direction M. le
Comte de Peyre brought thirty-two cavalry and
three hundred and fifty infantry, having enlisted
them at Marvejols, La Canourgue, Chiac, and Ser-
verette. M. de St. Paul, Abbe Duchayla's brother,
and the Marquis Duchayla, his nephew, brought
eighty horsemen from the family estates. The
Count of Morangiez rode in from St. Auban and
Malzieu with two companies of cavalry, and the
town of Mende by order of its bishop despatched its
nobles at the head of three companies of fifty men
each.

But the mountains had swallowed up the fanatics,
and nothing was ever known of their fate, except
that from time to time a peasant would relate that
in crossing the Cevennes he had heard at dawn or
dusk, on mountain peak or from valley depths, the
sound going up to heaven of songs of praise. It
was the fanatic assassins worshipping God.

Or occasionally at night, on the tops of the lofty
mountains, fires shone forth which appeared to sig-
nal one to another, but on looking the next night
in the same direction all was dark.

So M. de Broglie, concluding that nothing could
be done against enemies who were invisible, dis-
banded the troops which had come to his aid, and
went back to Montpellier, leaving a company of
fusiliers at Collet, another at Ayres, one at the

473

CELEBRATED CRIMES

bridge of Montvert, one at Barre, and one at
Pompidon, and appointing Captain Poul as their
chief.

This choice of such a man as chief showed that
M. de Broglie was a good judge of human nature,
and was also perfectly acquainted with the situation,
for Captain Poul was the very man to take a lead-
ing part in the coming struggle. " He was," says
Pere Louvrelceil, priest of the Christian doctrine
and cure of Saint-Germain de Calberte, " an of-
ficer of merit and reputation, born in Ville-Dubert,
near Carcassonne, who had when young served in
Hungary and Germany, and distinguished himself
in Piedmont in several excursions against the Bar-
bets,1 notably in one of the later ones, when, enter-
ing the tent of their chief, Barbanaga, he cut off his
head. His tall and agile figure, his warlike air, his
love of hard work, his hoarse voice, his fiery and-
austere character, his carelessness in regard to dress,
his mature age, his tried courage, his taciturn habit,
the length and weight of his sword, all combined to
render him formidable. Therefore no one could
have been chosen more suitable for putting down
the rebels, for forcing their entrenchments, and for
putting them to flight.

1 A name applied first to the Alpine smugglers who lived
in the valleys, later to the insurgent peasants in the
Cevennes. — Translator's Note.

474

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

Hardly had he taken up a position in the market
town of Labarre, which was to be his headquarters,
than he was informed that a gathering of fanatics
had been seen on the little plain of Fondmorte,
which formed a pass between two valleys. He or-
dered out his Spanish steed, which he was accus-
tomed to ride in the Turkish manner — that is, with
very short stirrups, so that he could throw himself
forward to the horse's ears, or backward to the tail,
according as he wished to give or avoid a mortal
blow. Taking with him eighteen men of his own
company and twenty-five from the town, he at once
set off for the place indicated, not considering any
larger number necessary to put to rout a band of
peasants, however numerous.

The information turned out to be correct : a
hundred Reformers led by Esprit Seguier had en-
camped in the plain of Fondmorte, and about eleven
o'clock in the morning one of their sentinels in the
defile gave the alarm by firing off his gun and run-
ning back to the camp, shouting, "To arms!"
But Captain Poul, with his usual impetuosity, did
not give the insurgents time to form, but threw him-
self upon them to the beat of the drum, not in the
least deterred by their first volley. As he had ex-
pected, the band consisted of undisciplined peasants,
who once scattered were unable to rally. They
were therefore completely routed. Poul killed sev-

475

CELEBRATED CRIMES

eral with his own hand, among whom were two
whose heads he cut off as cleverly as the most ex-
perienced executioner could have done, thanks to
the marvellous temper of his Damascus blade. At
this sight all who had till then stood their ground
took to flight, Poul at their heels, slashing with his
sword unceasingly, till they disappeared among the
mountains. He then returned to the field of battle,
picked up the two heads, and fastening them to his
saddlebow, rejoined his soldiers with his bloody
trophies, — that is to say, he joined the largest group
of soldiers he could find; for the fight had turned
into a number of single combats, every soldier fight-
ing for himself. Here he found three prisoners who
were about to be shot; but Poul ordered that they
should not be touched : not that he thought for an
instant of sparing their lives, but that he wished to
reserve them for a public execution. These three
men were Nouvel, a parishioner of Vialon, Moiise
Bonnet of Pierre-Male, and Esprit Seguier the
prophet.

Captain Poul returned to Barre carrying with
him his two heads and his three prisoners, and im-
mediately reported to M. Just de Baville, intendant
of Languedoc, the important capture he had made.
The prisoners were quickly tried. Pierre Nouvel
was condemned to be burnt alive at the bridge of
Mont vert, Mo'ise Bonnet to be broken on the wheel

476

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

at Deveze, and Esprit Seguier to be hanged at An-
dre-de-Lancise. Thus those who were amateurs in
executions had a sufficient choice.

However, Moise Bonnet saved himself by becom-
ing Catholic, but Pierre Nouvel and Esprit Seguier
died as martyrs, making profession of the new faith
and praising God.

Two days after the sentence on Esprit Seguier
had been carried out, the body disappeared from
the gallows. A nephew of Laporte named Roland
had audaciously carried it off, leaving behind a writ-
ing nailed to the gibbet. This was a challenge from
Laporte to Poul, and was dated from the " Camp
of the Eternal God, in the desert of Cevennes,"
Laporte signing himself " Colonel of the children
of God who seek liberty of conscience." Poul
was about to accept the challenge when he learned
that the insurrection was spreading on every side.
A young man of Vieljeu, twenty-six years of age,
named Solomon Couderc, had succeeded Esprit Se-
guier in the office of prophet, and two young lieuten-
ants had joined Laporte. One of these was his
nephew Roland, a man of about thirty, pock-marked,
fair, thin, cold, and reserved; he was not tall, but
very strong, and of inflexible courage. The other,
Henri Castanet of Massevaques, was a keeper from
the mountain of Laygoal, whose skill as a marksman
was so well known that it was said he never missed

477

CELEBRATED CRIMES

a shot. Each of these lieutenants had fifty men
under him.

Prophets and prophetesses too increased apace,
so that hardly a day passed without reports being
heard of fresh ones who were rousing whole villages
by their ravings.

In the meantime a great meeting of the Protes-
tants of Languedoc had been held in the fields of
Vauvert, at which it had been resolved to join
forces with the rebels of the Cevennes, and to
send a messenger thither to make this resolution
known.

Laporte had just returned from La Vaunage,
where he had been making recruits, when this good
news arrived; he at once sent his nephew Roland
to the new allies with power to pledge his word in
return for theirs, and to describe to them, in order
to attract them, the country which he had chosen as
the theatre of the coming war, and which, thanks
to its hamlets, its woods, its defiles, its valleys, its
precipices, and its caves, was capable of affording
cover to as many bands of insurgents as might be
employed, would be a good rally ing-ground after
repulse, and contained suitable positions for am-
buscades. Roland was so successful in his mission
that these new " soldiers of the Lord," as they called
themselves, on learning that he had once been a
dragoon, offered him the post of leader, which he

478

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

accepted, and returned to his uncle at the head of
an army.

Being thus reinforced, the Reformers divided
themselves into three bands, in order to spread
abroad their beliefs through the entire district. One
went towards Soustele and the neighbourhood of
Alais, another towards St. Privat and the bridge of
Montvert, while the third followed the mountain
slope down to St. Roman le Pompidou, and Barre.
The first was commanded by Castanet, the second
by Roland, and the third by Laporte.

Each party ravaged the country as it passed, re-
turning deathblow for deathblow and conflagration
for conflagration, so that hearing one after another
of these outrages Captain Poul demanded reinforce-
ments from M. de Broglie and M. de Baville, which
were promptly despatched.

As soon as Captain Poul found himself at the
head of a sufficient number of troops, he determined
to attack the rebels. He had received intelligence
that the band led by Laporte was just about to pass
through the valley of Croix, below Barre, near
Temelague. In consequence of this information,
he lay in ambush at a favourable spot on the route.
As soon as the Reformers, who were without sus-
picion, were well within the narrow pass in which
Poul awaited them, he issued forth at the head of
his soldiers, and charged the rebels with such cour-

479
Dumas— Vol. 2—3

CELEBRATED CRIMES

age and impetuosity that they, taken by surprise,
made no attempt at resistance, but, thoroughly de-
moralised, spread over the mountain-side, putting a
greater and greater distance at every instant be-
tween themselves and the enemy, despite the efforts
of Laporte to make them stand their ground. At
last, seeing himself deserted, Laporte began to think
of his own safety. But it was already too late, for
he was surrounded by dragoons, and the only way
of retreat open to him lay over a large rock. This
he successfully scaled, but before trying to get down
the other side he raised his hands in supplication to
Heaven ; at that instant a volley was fired, two bul-
lets struck him, and he fell head foremost down the
precipice.

When the dragoons reached the foot of the rock,
they found him dead. As they knew he was the
chief of the rebels, his body was searched: sixty
louis was found in his pockets, and a sacred chalice
which he was in the habit of using as an ordinary
drinking-cup. Poul cut Off his head and the heads
of twelve other Reformers found dead on the field
of battle, and enclosing them in a wicker basket, sent
them to M. Just de Baville.

The Reformers soon recovered from this defeat
and death, joined all their forces into one body, and
placed Roland at their head in the place of Laporte.
Roland chose a young man called Couderc de Mazel-

480

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

Rozade, who had assumed the name of Lafleur, as
his lieutenant, and the rebel forces were not only
quickly reorganised, but made complete by the
addition of a hundred men raised by the new lieu-
tenant, and soon gave a sign that they were again
on the war-path by burning down the churches of
Bousquet, Cassagnas, and Prunet.

Then first it was that the consuls of Mende began
to realise that it was no longer an insurrection they
had on hand but a war, and Mende being the capital
of Gevaudan and liable to be attacked at any mo-
ment, they set themselves to bring into repair their
counterscarps, ravelins, bastions, gates, portcullises,
moats, walls, turrets, ramparts, parapets, watch-
towers, and the gear of their cannon, and having
laid in a stock of firearms, powder and ball, they
formed eight companies each fifty strong, composed
of townsmen, and a further band of one hundred
and fifty peasants drawn from the neighbouring
country. Lastly, the States of the province sent an
envoy to the king, praying him graciously to take
measures to check the plague of heresy which was
spreading from day to day. The king at once sent
M. Julien in answer to the petition. Thus it was
no longer simple governors of towns nor even chiefs
of provinces who were engaged in the struggle; roy-
alty itself had come to the rescue.

M. de Julien, born a Protestant, was a member
481

CELEBRATED CRIMES

of the nobility of Orange, and in his youth had
served against France and borne arms in England
and Ireland. When William of Orange succeeded
James n as King of England, Julien was one of his
pages, and received as a reward for his fidelity in
the famous campaign of 1688 the command of a
regiment which was sent to the aid of the Duke of
Savoy, who had begged both England and Holland
to help him. He bore himself so gallantly that it was
in great part due to him that the French were forced
to raise the siege of Cony.

Whether it was that he expected too much from
this success, or that the Duke of Savoy did not rec-
ognise his services at their worth, he withdrew to
Geneva, where Louis xiv hearing of his discontent,
caused overtures to be made to him with a view to
drawing him into the French service. He was of-
fered the same rank in the French army as he had
held in the English, with a pension of 3000 livres.

M. de Julien accepted, and feeling that his relig-
ious belief would be in the way of his advancement,
when he changed his master he changed his Church.
He was given the command of the valley of Bar-
celonnette, whence he made many excursions against
the Barbets; then he was transferred to the com-
mand of the Avennes, of the principality of Orange,
in order to guard the passes, so that the French
Protestants could not pass over the frontier for the

482

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

purpose of worshipping with their Dutch Protestant
brethren; and after having tried this for a year, he
went to Versailles to report himself to the king.
While he was there, it chanced that the envoy from
Gevaudan arrived, and the king being satisfied with
de Julien's conduct since he had entered his service,
made him major-general, chevalier of the military
order of St. Louis, and commander-in-chief in the
Vivarais and the Cevennes.

M. de Julien from the first felt that the situation
was very grave, and saw that his predecessors had
felt such great contempt for the heretics that they
had not realised the danger of the revolt. He im-
mediately proceeded to inspect in person the dif-
ferent points where M. de Broglie had placed de-
tachments of the Tournon and Marsily regiments.
It is true that he arrived by the light of thirty burn-
ing village churches.

M. de Broglie, M. de Baville, M. de Julien, and
Captain Poul met together to consult as to the best
means of putting an end to these disorders. It was
agreed that the royal troops should be divided into
two bodies, one under the command of M. de Julien
to advance on Alais, where it was reported larg?
meetings of the rebels were taking place, and the
other under M. de Broglie, to march about in the
neighbourhood of Nimes.

Consequently, the two chiefs separated. M. le
483

CELEBRATED CRIMES

Comte de Broglie at the head of sixty-two dragoons
and some companies of foot, and having under him
Captain Poul and M. de Dourville, set out from
Cavayrac on the 12th of January at 2 a. m., and
having searched without finding anything the vine-
yards of Nimes and La Garrigue de Milhau, took
the road to the bridge of Lunel. There he was in-
formed that those he was in search of had been
seen at the chateau of Caudiac the day before; he
therefore at once set out for the forest which lies
around it, not doubting to find the fanatics en-
trenched there; but, contrary to his expectations, it
was vacant. He then pushed on to Vauvert, from
Vauvert to Beauvoisin, from Beauvoisin to Generac,
where he learned that a troop of rebels had passed
the night there, and in the morning had left for
Aubore. Resolved to give them no rest, M. de
Broglie set out at once for this village.

When half-way there, a member of his staff
thought he could distinguish a crowd of men near
a house about half a league distant; M. de Broglie
instantly ordered Sieur de Gibertin, Captain Poul's
lieutenant, who was riding close by, at the head of
his company, to take eight dragoons and make a
reconnaissance, in order to ascertain who these men
were, while the rest of the troops would make a
halt.

This little band, led by its officer, crossed a clear-
484

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

ing in the wood, and advanced towards the farm-
house, which was called the Mas de Gafarel, and
which now seemed deserted. But when they were
within half a gun-shot of the wall the charge was
sounded behind it, and a band of rebels rushed to-
wards them, while from a neighbouring house a
second troop emerged, and looking round, he per-
ceived a third lying on their faces in a small wood.
These latter suddenly stood up and approached him,
singing psalms. As it was impossible for M. de
Gibertin to hold his ground against so large a
force, he ordered two shots to be fired as a warning
to de Broglie to advance to meet him, and fell back
on his comrades. Indeed, the rebels had only pur-
sued him till they had reached a favourable position,
on which they took their stand.

M. de Broglie having surveyed the whole position
with the aid of a telescope, held a council of war,
and it was decided that an attack should be made
forthwith. They therefore advanced on the rebels
in line : Captain Poul on the right, M. de Dourville
on the left, and Count Broglie in the centre.

As they got near they could see that the rebels
had chosen their ground with an amount of stra-
tegical sagacity they had never till then displayed.
This skill in making their dispositions was evidently
due to their having found a new leader whom no
one knew, not even Captain Poul, although they

485

CELEBRATED CRIMES

could see him at the head of his men, carbine in
hand.

However, these scientific preparations did not
stop M. de Broglie : he gave the order to charge, and
adding example to precept, urged his horse to a
gallop. The rebels in the first rank knelt on one
knee, so that the rank behind could take aim, and
the distance between the two bodies of troops dis-
appeared rapidly, thanks to the impetuosity of the
dragoons; but suddenly, when within thirty paces
of the enemy, the royals found themselves on the
edge of a deep ravine which separated them from
the enemy like a moat. Some were able to check
their horses in time, but others, despite desperate
efforts, pressed upon by those behind, were pushed
into the ravine, and rolled helplessly to the bottom.
At the same moment the order to fire was given in
a sonorous voice, there was a rattle of musketry,
and several dragoons near M. de Broglie fell.

"Forward!" cried Captain Poul, "forward!"
and putting his horse at a part of the ravine where
the sides were less steep, he was soon struggling up
the opposite side, followed by a few dragoons.

" Death to the son of Belial ! " cried the same
voice which had given the order to fire. At that
moment a single shot rang out, Captain Poul threw
up his hands, letting his sabre go, and fell from his
horse, which instead of running away, touched his

486

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

master with its smoking nostrils, then lifting its
head, neighed long and low. The dragoons re-
treated.

" So perish all the persecutors of Israel ! " cried
the leader, brandishing his carbine. He then dashed
down into the ravine, picked up Captain Poul's sabre
and jumped upon his horse. The animal, faithful
to its old master, showed some signs of resistance,
but soon felt by the pressure of its rider's knees
that it had to do with one whom it could not readily
unseat. Nevertheless, it reared and bounded, but
the horseman kept his seat, and as if recognising
that it had met its match, the noble animal tossed its
head, neighed once more, and gave in. While this
was going on, a party of Camisards1 and one of the
dragoons had got down into the ravine, which had
in consequence been turned into a battlefield; while
those who remained above on either side took ad-
vantage of their position to fire down at their ene-
mies. M. de Dourville, in command of the dra-
goons, fought among the others like a simple soldier,
and received a serious wound in the head; his men
beginning to lose ground, M. de Broglie tried to
rally them, but without avail, and while he was thus
occupied his own troop ran away; so seeing there
was no prospect of winning the battle, he and a few
valiant men who had remained near him dashed for-

1 Name given to the insurgent Calvinists after the Revo-
cation of the Edict of Nantes. — Translator's Note.

487

CELEBRATED CRIMES

ward to extricate M. Dourville, who, taking advant-
age of the opening thus made, retreated, his wound
bleeding profusely. On the other hand, the Cami-
sards perceiving at some distance bodies of infantry-
coming up to reinforce the royals, instead of pur-
suing their foes, contented themselves with keeping
up a thick and well-directed musketry-fire from the
position in which they had won such a quick and
easy victory.

As soon as the royal forces were out of reach of
their weapons, the rebel chief knelt down and chant-
ed the song the Israelites sang when, having crossed
the Red Sea in safety, they saw the army of
Pharaoh swallowed up in the waters, so that al-
though no longer within reach of bullets the defeated
troops were still pursued by songs of victory. Their
thanksgivings ended, the Calvinists withdrew into
the forest, led by their new chief, who had at his
first assay shown the great extent of his knowledge,
coolness, and courage.

This new chief, whose superiors were soon to be-
come his lieutenants, was the famous Jean Cavalier.

Jean Cavalier was then a young man of twenty-
three, of less than medium height, but of great
strength. His face was oval, with regular features,
his eyes sparkling and beautiful; he had long chest-
nut hair falling on his shoulders, and an expression
of remarkable sweetness. He was born in 1680 at

488

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

Ribaute, a village in the diocese of Alais, where his
father had rented a small farm, which he gave up
when his son was about fifteen, coming to live at the
farm of St. Andeol, near Mende.

Young Cavalier, who was only a peasant and the
son of a peasant, began life as a shepherd at the
Sieur de Lacombe's, a citizen of Vezenobre, but as
the lonely life dissatisfied a young man who was
eager for pleasure, Jean gave it up, and apprenticed
himself to a baker of Anduze.

There he developed a great love for everything
connected with the military; he spent all his free
time watching the soldiers at their drill, and soon
became intimate with some of them, amongst others
with a fencing-master who gave him lessons, and a
dragoon who taught him to ride.

On a certain Sunday, as he was taking a walk
with his sweetheart on his arm, the young girl was
insulted by a dragoon of the Marquis de Florae's
regiment. Jean boxed the dragoon's ears, who drew
his sword. Cavalier seized a sword from one of the
bystanders, but the combatants were prevented from
fighting by Jean's friends. Hearing of the quarrel,
an officer hurried up : it was the Marquis de Florae
himself, captain of the regiment which bore his
name; but when he arrived on the scene he found,
not the arrogant peasant who had dared to attack a
soldier of the king, but only the young girl, who

489

CELEBRATED CRIMES

had fainted, the townspeople having persuaded her
lover to decamp.

The young girl was so beautiful that she was
commonly called la belle Isabeau, and the Marquis
de Florae, instead of pursuing Jean Cavalier, oc-
cupied himself in reviving Isabeau.

As it was, however, a serious affair, and as the
entire regiment had sworn Cavalier's death, his
friends advised him to leave the country for a time.
La belle Isabeau, trembling for the safety of her
lover, joined her entreaties to those of his friends,
and Jean Cavalier yielded. The young girl promised
him inviolable fidelity, and he, relying on this
promise, went to Geneva.

There he made the acquaintance of a Protestant
gentleman called Du Serre, who having glass-works
at the Mas Arritas, quite near the farm of St. An-
deol, had undertaken several times, at the request
of Jean's father, Jerome, to convey money to Jean ;
for Du Serre went very often to Geneva, professedly
on business affairs, but really in the interests of the
Reformed faith. Between the outlaw and the
apostle union was natural. Du Serre found in Ca-
valier a young man of robust nature, active imagi-
nation, and irreproachable courage; he confided to
him his hopes of converting all Languedoc and
Vivarais. Cavalier felt himself drawn back there
by many ties, especially by patriotism and love. He

490

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

crossed the frontier once more, disguised as a ser-
vant, in the suite of a Protestant gentleman; he ar-
rived one night at Anduze, and immediately directed
his steps to the house of Isabeau.

He was just about to knock, although it was one
o'clock in the morning, when the door was opened
from within, and a handsome young man came out,
who took tender leave of a woman on the threshold.
The handsome young man was the Marquis de Fk>
rac; the woman was Isabeau. The promised wife
of the peasant had become the mistress of the noble.

Our hero was not the man to suffer such an out-
rage quietly. He walked straight up to the marquis
and stood right in his way. The marquis tried to
push him aside with his elbow, but Jean Cavalier,
letting fall the cloak in which he was wrapped, drew
his sword. The marquis was brave, and did not
stop to inquire if he who attacked him was his equal
or not. Sword answered sword, the blades crossed,
and at the end of a few instants the marquis fell,
Jean's sword piercing his chest.

Cavalier felt sure that he was dead, for he lay at
his feet motionless. He knew he had no time to
lose, for he had no mercy to hope for. He replaced
his bloody sword in the scabbard, and made for the
open country; from the open country he hurried
into the mountains, and at break of day he was in
safety.

491

CELEBRATED CRIMES

The fugitive remained the whole day in an isolated
farmhouse whose inmates offered him hospitality.
As he very soon felt that he was in the house of a
co-religionist, he confided to his host the circum-
stances in which he found himself, and asked where
he could meet with an organised band in which he
could enrol himself in order to fight for the propa-
gation of the Reformed religion. The farmer
mentioned Generac as being a place in which he
would probably find a hundred or so of the brethren
gathered together. Cavalier set out the same even-
ing for this village, and arrived in the middle of the
Camisards at the very moment when they had just
caught sight of M. de Broglie and his troops in the
distance. The Calvinists happening to have no lead-
er, Cavalier with governing faculty which some men
possess by nature, placed himself at their head and
took those measures for the reception of the royal
forces of which we have seen the result, so that after
the victory to which his head and arm had contribu-
ted so much he was confirmed in the title which he
had arrogated to himself, by acclamation.

Such was the famous Jean Cavalier when the
Royalists first learned of his existence, through the
repulse of their bravest troops and the death of their
most intrepid captain.

The news of this victory soon spread through the
Cevennes, and fresh conflagrations lit up the moun-

492

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

tains in sign of joy. The beacons were formed of
the chateau de la Bastide, the residence of the Mar-
quis de Chambonnas, the church of Samson, and the
village of Grouppieres, where of eighty houses only
seven were left standing.

Thereupon M. de Julien wrote to the king, ex-
plaining the serious turn things had taken, and tell-
ing him that it was no longer a few fanatics wander-
ing through the mountains and flying at the sight of
a dragoon whom they had to put down, but organ-
ised companies well led and officered, which if
united would form an army twelve to fifteen hundred
strong. The king replied by sending M. le Comte
de Montrevel to Nimes. He was the son of the
Marechal de Montrevel, chevalier of the Order of
the Holy Spirit, major-general, lieutenant of the
king in Bresse and Charolais, and captain of a hun-
dred men-at-arms.

In their struggle against shepherds, keepers, and
peasants, M. de Broglie, M. de Julien, and M. de
Baville were thus joined together with the head of
the house of Beaune, which had already at this
epoch produced two cardinals, three archbishops,
two bishops, a viceroy of Naples, several marshals
of France, and many governors of Savoy, Dauphine,
and Bresse.

He was followed by twenty pieces of ordnance,
five thousand bullets^ four thousand muskets, and

493

CELEBRATED CRIMES

fifty thousand pounds of powder, all of which was
carried down the river Rhone, while six hundred
of the skilful mountain marksmen called miquelets
from Roussillon came down into Languedoc.

M. de Montrevel was the bearer of terrible orders.
Louis xiv was determined, no matter what it cost,
to root out heresy, and set about this work as if his
eternal salvation depended on it. As soon as M. de
Baville had read these orders, he published the fol-
lowing proclamation : —

" The king having been informed that certain
people without religion bearing arms have been
guilty of violence, burning down churches and kill-
ing priests, His Majesty hereby commands all his
subjects to hunt these people down, and that those
who are taken with arms in their hands or found
amongst their bands, be punished with death with-
out any trial whatever, that their houses be razed
to the ground and their goods confiscated, and that
all buildings in which assemblies of these people
have been held, be demolished. The king further
forbids fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and other
relations of the fanatics, or of other rebels, to give
them refuge, food, stores, ammunition, or other
assistance of any kind, under any pretext whatever,
either directly or indirectly, on pain of being reputed
accessory to the rebellion, and he commands the

494

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

Sieur de Baville and whatever officers he may-
choose to prosecute such and pronounce sentence
of death on them. Furthermore, His Majesty com-
mands that all the inhabitants of Languedoc who
may be absent at the date of the issue of this procla-
mation, return home within a week, unless their ab-
sence be caused by legitimate business, in which case
they shall declare the same to the commandant, the
Sieur de Montrevel, or to the intendant, the Sieur
de Baville, and also to the mayors and consuls of the
places where they may be, receiving from the latter
certificates that there is a sufficient reason for their
delay, which certificates they shall forward to the
above-mentioned commandant or intendant. And
His Majesty furthermore commands the said com-
mandant and intendant to admit no foreigner or
inhabitant of any other province into Languedoc for
commercial purposes or for any other reason what-
soever, unless provided with certificates from the
commandants or intendants of the provinces whence
they come, or from the judges of the royal courts
in the places whence they come, or from the nearest
place containing such courts. Foreigners must be
provided with passports from the ambassadors or
ministers of the king accredited to the countries to
which they belong, or from the commandants or in-
tendants of the provinces, or from the judges of the
royal courts of the places in which they may be at

495

CELEBRATED CRIMES

the date of this proclamation. Furthermore, it is
His Majesty's will that those who are found in the
aforesaid province of Languedoc without such cer-
tificates be regarded as fanatics and rebels, and that
they be prosecuted as such, and punished with death,
and that they be brought for this purpose before
the aforesaid Sieur de Baville or the officers whom
he may choose.

(Signed) "Louis

(Countersigned) Philippeau

" Given at Versailles the 25th day of the month
of February 1703."

M. de Montrevel obeyed this proclamation to the
letter. For instance, one day — the 1st of April
1703 — as he was seated at dinner it was reported to
him that about one hundred and fifty Reformers
were assembled in a mill at Carmes, outside Nimes,
singing psalms. Although he was told at the same
time that the gathering was composed entirely of
old people and children, he was none the less furious,
and rising from the table, gave orders that the call
to horse should be sounded. Putting himself at the
head of his dragoons, he advanced on the mill, and
before the Huguenots knew that they were about
to be attacked they were surrounded on every side.
It was no combat which ensued, for the Huguenots
were incapable of resistance, it was simply a mas-

496

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

sacre ; a certain number of the dragoons entered the
mill, sword in hand, stabbing all whom they could
reach, whilst the rest of the force stationed outside
before the windows received those who jumped out
on the points of their swords. But soon this butch-
ery tired the butchers, and to get over the business
more quickly, the marshal, who was anxious to re-
turn to his dinner, gave orders that the mill should
be set on fire. This being done, the dragoons, the
marshal still at their head, no longer exerted them-
selves so violently, but were satisfied with pushing
back into the flames the few unfortunates who,
scorched and burnt, rushed out, begging only for a
less cruel death.

Only one victim escaped. A beautiful young girl
of sixteen was saved by the marshal's valet: both
were taken and condemned to death; the young
girl was hanged, and the valet was on the point of
being executed when some Sisters of Mercy from
the town threw themselves at the marshal's feet
and begged for his life: after long supplication, he
granted their prayer, but he banished the valet not
only from his service, but from Nimes.

The very same evening at supper word was
brought to the marshal that another gathering had
been discovered in a garden near the still smoking
mill. The indefatigable marshal again rose from
table, and taking with him his faithful dragoons,

497

CELEBRATED CRIMES

surrounded the garden, and caught and shot on the
spot all those who were assembled in it. The next
day it turned out that he had made a mistake : those
whom he had shot were Catholics who had gathered
together to rejoice over the execution of the Calvin-
ists. It is true that they had assured the marshal
that they were Catholics, but he had refused to listen
to them. Let us, however, hasten to assure the
reader that this mistake caused no further annoy-
ance to the marshal, except that he received a pater-
nal remonstrance from the Bishop of Nimes, beg-
ging him in future not to confound the sheep with
the wolves.

In requital of these bloody deeds, Cavalier took
the chateau of Serras, occupied the town of Sauve,
formed a company of horse, and advancing to
Nimes, took forcible possession of sufficient ammu-
nition for his purposes. Lastly, he did something
which in the eyes of the courtiers seemed the most
incredible thing of all, he actually wrote a long let-
ter to Louis xiv himself. This letter was dated from
the " Desert, Cevennes," and signed " Cavalier,
commander of the troops sent by God " ; its purpose
was to prove by numerous passages from Holy Writ
that Cavalier and his comrades had been led to re-
volt solely from a sense of duty, feeling that liberty
of conscience was their right; and it dilated on the
subject of the persecutions under which Protestants

498

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

had suffered, and asserted that it was the infamous
measures put in force against them which had driven
them to take up arms, which they were ready to lay
down if His Majesty would grant them that liberty
in matters of religion which they sought and if he
would liberate all who were in prison for their faith.
If this were accorded, he assured the king His Maj-
esty would have no more faithful subjects than
themselves, and would henceforth be ready to shed
their last drop of blood in his service, and wound
up by saying that if their just demands were
refused they would obey God rather than the
king, and would defend their religion to their last
breath.

Roland, who, whether in mockery or pride, began
now to call himself " Comte Roland," did not lag
behind his young brother either as warrior or cor-
respondent. He had entered the town of Ganges,
where a wonderful reception awaited him; but not
feeling sure that he would be equally well received
at St. Germain and St. Andre, he had written the
following letters : —

" Gentlemen and officers of the king's forces, and
citizens of St. Germain, make ready to receive seven
hundred troops who have vowed to set Babylon on
fire ; the seminary and the houses of MM. de
Fabregue, de Sarrasin, de Moles, de La Rouviere,

499

CELEBRATED CRIMES

de Musse, and de Solier, will be burnt to the ground.
God, by His Holy Spirit, has inspired my brother
Cavalier and me with the purpose of entering your
town in a few days; however strongly you fortify
yourselves, the children of God will bear away the
victory. If ye doubt this, come in your numbers, ye
soldiers of St. Etienne, Barre, and Florae, to the
field of Domergue; we shall be there to meet you.
Come, ye hypocrites, if your hearts fail not.

" Comte Roland."

The second letter was no less violent. It was as
follows : — ■

" We, Comte Roland, general of the Protestant
troops of France assembled in the Cevennes in
Languedoc, enjoin on the inhabitants of the town
of St. Andre of Valborgne to give proper notice to
all priests and missionaries within it, that we forbid
them to say mass or to preach in the afore-mentioned
town, and that if they will avoid being burnt alive
with their adherents in their churches and houses,
they are to withdraw to some other place within
three days.

" Comte Roland."

Unfortunately for the cause of the king, though
the rebels met with some resistance in the villages

500

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

of the plain, such as St. Germain and St. Andre, it
was otherwise with those situated in the mountains ;
in those, when beaten, the Protestants found cover,
when victorious rest; so that M. de Montrevel
becoming aware that while these villages existed
heresy would never be extirpated, issued the fol-
lowing ordinance : —

" We, governor for His most Christian Majesty
in the provinces of Languedoc and Vivarais, do
hereby make known that it has pleased the king
to command us to reduce all the places and parishes
hereinafter named to such a condition that they can
afford no assistance to the rebel troops; no inhabi-
tants will therefore be allowed to remain in them.
His Majesty, however, desiring to provide for the
subsistence of the afore-mentioned inhabitants, or-
ders them to conform to the following regulations.
He enjoins on the afore-mentioned inhabitants of
the hereinafter-mentioned parishes to repair in-
stantly to the places hereinafter appointed, with their
furniture, cattle, and in general all their movable
effects, declaring that in case of disobedience their
effects will be confiscated and taken away by the
troops employed to demolish their houses. And it
is hereby forbidden to any other commune to receive
such rebels, under pain of having their houses also
razed to the ground and their goods confiscated, and

501

CELEBRATED CRIMES

furthermore being regarded and treated as rebels
to the commands of His Majesty."

To this proclamation were appended the following
instructions : —

" I. The officers who may be appointed to per-
form the above task shall first of all make themselves
acquainted with the position of the parishes and
villages which are to be destroyed and depopulated,
in order to an effective disposition of the troops,
who are to guard the militia engaged in the work of
destruction.

" II. The attention of the officers is called to the
following : — When two or more villages or hamlets
are so near together that they may be protected at
the same time by the same troops, then in order to
save time the work is to be carried on simultaneously
in such villages or hamlets.

" III. When inhabitants are found still remaining
in any of the proscribed places, they are to be
brought together, and a list made of them, as well
as an inventory taken of their stock and corn.

" IV. Those inhabitants who are of the most
consequence among them shall be selected to guide
the others to the places assigned.

" V. With regard to the live stock, the persons
who may be found in charge of it shall drive it to
the appointed place, save and except mules and

502

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

asses, which shall be employed in the transport of
corn to whatever places it may be needed in. Never-
theless, asses may be given to the very old, and to
women with child who may be unable to walk.

" VI. A regular distribution of the militia is to
be made, so that each house to be destroyed may
have a sufficient number for the task; the founda-
tions of such houses may be undermined or any other
method employed which may be most convenient;
and if the house can be destroyed by no other means,
it is to be set on fire.

" VII. No damage is to be done to the houses of
former Catholics until further notice, and to ensure
the carrying out of this order a guard is to be
placed in them, and an inventory of their contents
taken and sent to Marechal de Montrevel.

" VIII. The order forbidding the inhabitants to
return to their houses is to be read to the inhabitants
of each village; but if any do return they shall not
be harmed, but simply driven away with threats;
for the king does not desire that blood be shed ; and
the said order shall be affixed to a wall or tree in
each village.

" IX. Where no inhabitants are found, the said
order shall simply be affixed as above-mentioned in
each place.

(Signed) " Marechal de Montrevel"

5°3

CELEBRATED CRIMES

Under these instructions the list of the villages to
be destroyed was given. It was as follows : —

18 in

the parish

of Frugeres,

5 '

> >>

Fressinet-de-Lozere,

4

> >f

Grizac,

15 '

> >>

Castagnols,

11 '

y >>

Vialas,

6 '

t tf

Saint-Julien,

8 '

» 5J

Saint-Maurice de Vantalon,

14

> 5>

Frezal de Vantalon,

7 '

J JJ

Saint-Hilaire de Laret,

6 '

J >>

Saint- Andeol de Clergues,

28 '

> >>

Saint-Privat de Vallongues,

10 '

> >>

Saint-Andre de Lancise,

19 '

> >>

Saint-Germain de Calberte,

26 '

> ))

Saint-Etienne de Valfrancesque,

9 '

parishes of Prunet and Montvaillant,

16 '

' parish

" Florae.

202

A second list was promised, and was shortly
afterwards published: it included the parishes of
Frugeres, Pompidon, Saint-Martin, Lansuscle,
Saint-Laurent, Treves, Vebron, Ronnes, Barre,
Montluzon, Bousquet, La Barthes, Balme, Saint-
Julien d'Aspaon Cassagnas, Sainte-Croix de Val-

S04

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

francesque, Cabriac, Moissac, Saint-Roman, Saint-
Martin de Robaux, La Melouse, le Collet de Deze,
Saint-Michel de Deze, and the villages of Salieges,
Rampon, Ruas, Chavrieres, Tourgueselle, Ginestous,
Fressinet, Fourques, Malbos, Jousanel, Campis,
Campredon, Lous-Aubrez, La Croix de Fer, Le
Cap de Coste, Marquayres, Le Cazairal, and Le
Poujal.

In all, 466 market towns, hamlets, and villages,
with 19,500 inhabitants, were included.

All these preparations made Marechal de Mon-
trevel set out for Aix, September 26th, 1703, in
order that the work might be carried out under his
personal supervision. He was accompanied by MM.
de Vergetot and de Marsilly, colonels of infantry,
two battalions of the Royal-Comtois, two of the
Soissonnais infantry, the Languedoc regiment of
dragoons, and two hundred dragoons from the
Fimargon regiment. M. de Julien, on his side, set
out for the Pont-de-Montvert at the same time with
two battalions from Hainault, accompanied by the
Marquis of Canillac, colonel of infantry, who
brought two battalions of his own regiment, which
was stationed in Rouergue, with him, and Comte de
Payre, who brought fifty-five companies of militia
from Gevaudan, and followed by a number of mules
loaded with crowbars, axes, and other iron instru-
ments necessary for pulling down houses.

505

CELEBRATED CRIMES

The approach of all these troops following close
on the terrible proclamations we have given above,
produced exactly the contrary effect to that intended.
The inhabitants of the proscribed districts were con-
vinced that the order to gather together in certain
places was given that they might be conveniently
massacred together, so that all those capable of bear-
ing arms went deeper into the mountains, and joined
the forces of Cavalier and Roland, thus reinforcing
them to the number of fifteen hundred men. Also
hardly had M. de Julien set his hand to the work
than he received information from M. de Mon-
trevel, who had heard the news through a letter
from Flechier, that while the royal troops were
busy in the mountains the Camisards had come down
into the plain, swarmed over La Camargue, and had
been seen in the neighbourhood of Saint-Gilles. At
the same time word was sent him that two ships had
been seen in the offing, from Cette, and that it was
more than probable that they contained troops, that
England and Holland were sending to help the
Camisards.

M. de Montrevel, leaving the further conduct of
the expedition to MM. de Julien and de Canillac,
hastened to Cette with eight hundred men and ten
guns. The ships were still in sight, and were really,
as had been surmised, two vessels which had been
detached from the combined fleets of England and

506

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

Holland by Admiral Schowel, and were the bearers
of money, arms, and ammunition to the Huguenots.
They continued to cruise about and signal, but as the
rebels were forced by the presence of M. de Mon-
trevel to keep away from the coast, and could there-
fore make no answer, they put off at length into the
open, and rejoined the fleet. As M. de Montrevel
feared that their retreat might be a feint, he ordered
all the fishermen's huts from Aigues-Morte to Saint-
Gilles to be destroyed, lest they should afford shelter
to the Camisards. At the same time he carried off
the inhabitants of the district of Guillan and shut
them up in the chateau of Sommerez, after having
demolished their villages. Lastly, he ordered all
those who lived in homesteads, farms, or hamlets,
to quit them and go to some large town, taking with
them all the provisions they were possessed of ; and
he forbade any workman who went outside the town
to work to take more than one day's provisions with
him.

These measures had the desired effect, but they
were terrible in their results; they deprived the
Camisards of shelter indeed, but they rained the
province. M. de Baville, despite his well-known
severity, tried remonstrances, but they were taken
in bad part by M. de Montrevel, who told the in-
tendant to mind his own business, which was con-
fined to civil matters, and to leave military matters

507

CELEBRATED CRIMES

in his, M. de Montrevel's, hands; whereupon the
commandant joined M. de Julien, who was carry-
ing on the work of destruction with indefatigable
vigour.

In spite of all the enthusiasm with which M. de
Julien went to work to accomplish his mission, and
being a new convert, it was, of course, very great,
material hindrances hampered him at every step.
Almost all the doomed houses were built on vaulted
foundations, and were therefore difficult to lay low ;
the distance of one house from another, too, their
almost inaccessible position, either on the peak of a
high mountain or in the bottom of a rocky valley,
or buried in the depths of the forest which hid them
like a veil, made the difficulty still greater; whole
days were often lost by the workmen and militia
in searching for the dwellings they came to destroy.

The immense size of the parishes also caused de-
lay : that of Saint-Germain de Calberte, for instance,
was nine leagues in circumference, and contained a
hundred and eleven hamlets, inhabited by two hun-
dred and seventy-five families, of which only nine
weic -Catholic; that of Saint-Etienne de Valfran-
cesque was of still greater extent, and its population
was a third larger, so that obstacles to the work
multiplied in a remarkable manner. For the first
few days the soldiers and workmen found food in
and around the villages, but this was soon at an end,

508

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

and as they could hardly expect the peasants to keep
up the supply, and the provisions they had brought
with them being also exhausted, they were soon re-
duced to biscuit and water ; and they were not even
able to make it into a warm mess by heating the
water, as they had no vessels ; moreover, when their
hard day's work was at an end, they had but a hand-
ful of straw on which to lie. These privations,
added to their hard and laborious life, brought on
an endemic fever, which incapacitated for work
many soldiers and labourers, numbers of whom had
to be dismissed. Very soon the unfortunate men,
who were almost as much to be pitied as those whom
they were persecuting, waited no longer to be sent
away, but deserted in numbers.

M. de Julien soon saw that all his efforts would
end in failure if he could not gain the king's con-
sent to a slight change in the original plan. He
therefore wrote to Versailles, and represented to
the king how long the work would take if the means
employed were only iron tools and the human hand,
instead of fire, the only true instrument employed
by Heaven in its vengeance. He quoted in support
of his petition the case of Sodom and Gomorrah
— those cities accursed of the Lord. Louis xiv,
impressed by the truth of this comparison, sent him
back a messenger post-haste authorising him to
employ the suggested means.

509

CELEBRATED CRIMES

"At once," says Pere Louvreloeil, "the storm
burst, and soon of all the happy homesteads nothing
was left : the hamlets, with their barns and out-
houses, the isolated farmhouses, the single huts and
cottages, every species of building in short, dis-
appeared before the swift advancing flames as wild
flowers, weeds, and roots fall before the plough-
share."

This destruction was accompanied by horrible
cruelty. For instance, twenty-five inhabitants of a
certain village took refuge in a chateau ; the number
consisted of children and very old people, and they
were all that was left of the entire population.
Palmerolle, in command of the miquelets, hearing
of this, hastened thither, seized the first eight he
could lay hold of, and shot them on the spot, "to
teach them," as he says in his report, " not to choose
a shelter which was not on the list of those permitted
to them."

The Catholics also of St. Florent, Senechas,
Rousson, and other parishes, becoming excited at
seeing the flames which enveloped the houses of
their old enemies, joined together, and arming them-
selves with everything that could be made to serve
as an instrument of death, set out to hunt the con-
scripts down; they carried off the flocks of Perolat,
Fontareche, and Pajolas, burned down a dozen
houses at the Collet-de-Deze, and from there went

5io

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

to the village of Brenoux, drunk with the lust of
destruction. There they massacred fifty-two per-
sons, among them mothers with unborn children;
and with these babes, which they tore from them,
impaled on their pikes and halberts, they continued
their march towards the villages of St. Denis and
Castagnols.

Very soon these volunteers organised themselves
into companies, and became known under the name
of Cadets dc la Croix, from a small white cross
which they wore on their coats ; so the poor Hugue-
nots had a new species of enemy to contend with,
much more bloodthirsty than the dragoons and the
miquelets; for while these latter simply obeyed or-
ders from Versailles, Nimes, or Montpellier, the for-
mer gratified a personal hate — a hate which had
come down to them from their fathers, and which
they would pass on to their children.

On the other hand, the young Huguenot leader,
who every day gained more influence over his
soldiers, tried to make the dragoons and Cadets de la
Croix suffer in return everything they inflicted on
the Huguenots, except the murders. In the night
from the 2nd to the 3rd October, about ten o'clock,
he came down into the plain and attacked Som-
mieres from two different points, setting fire to the
houses. The inhabitants seizing their arms, made a
sortie, but Cavalier charged them at the head of the

Dumas — Vol. 2 — i

CELEBRATED CRIMES

cavalry and forced them to retreat. Thereupon the
governor, whose garrison was too small to leave the
shelter of the walls, turned his guns on them and
fired, less in the hope of inflicting injury on them
than in that of being heard by the neighbouring gar-
risons.

The Camisards recognising this danger, retired,
but not before they had burnt down the hotels of the
Cheval-Blanc, the Croix-d'Or, the Grand-Louis, and
the Luxembourg, as well as a great number of other
houses, and the church and the presbytery of Saint-
Amand.

Thence the Camisards proceeded to Cayla and
Vauvert, into which they entered, destroying the
fortifications. There they provided themselves
abundantly with provisions for man and beast. In
Vauvert, which was almost entirely inhabited by his
co-religionists, Cavalier assembled the inhabitants
in the market-place, and made them join with him
in prayer to God, that He would prevent the king
from following evil counsel; he also exhorted his
brethren to be ready to sacrifice their goods and their
lives for the re-establishment of their religion, af-
firming that the Holy Spirit had revealed to him
that the arm of the Lord, which had always come to
their aid, was still stretched out over them.

Cavalier undertook these movements in the hope
of interrupting the work of destruction going on

512

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

in Upper Cevennes, and partly obtained the desired
result; for M. de Julien received orders to come
down into the open country and disperse the Cami-
sards.

The troops tried to fulfil this task, but, thanks to
the knowledge that the rebels had of the country,
it was impossible to come up with them, so that
Flechier, who was in the thick of the executions,
conflagrations, and massacres, but who still found
time to write Latin verse and gallant letters, said,
in speaking of them, " They were never caught, and
did all the damage they wished to do without let or
hindrance. We laid their mountains waste, and they
laid waste our plain. There are no more churches
left in our dioceses, and not being able either to
plough or sow our lands, we have no revenues. We
dread serious revolt, and desire to avoid a religious
civil war ; so all our efforts are relaxing, we let our
arms fall without knowing why, and we are told,
' You must have patience ; it is not possible to fight
against phantoms.' " Nevertheless, from time to
time, these phantoms became visible. Towards the
end of October, Cavalier came down to Uzes, carried
off two sentinels who were guarding the gates, and
hearing the call to arms within, shouted that he
would await the governor of the city, M. de Verge-
tot, near Lussan.

And indeed Cavalier, accompanied by his two

513

CELEBRATED CRIMES

lieutenants, Ravanel and Catinat, took his way to-
wards this little town, between Uzes and Bargeac,
which stands upon an eminence surrounded upon
all sides by cliffs, which serve it as ramparts and
render it very difficult of access. Having arrived
within three gun-shots of Lussan, Cavalier sent
Ravanel to demand provisions from the inhabitants ;
but they, proud of their natural ramparts, and be-
lieving their town impregnable, not only refused to
comply with the requisition, but fired several shots
on the envoy, one of which wounded in the arm a
Camisard of the name of La Grandeur, who had ac-
companied Ravanel. Ravanel withdrew, support-
ing his wounded comrade, followed by shots and the
hootings of the inhabitants. When they rejoined
Cavalier and made their report, the young comman-
der issued orders to his soldiers to make ready to
take the town the next morning; for, as night was
already falling, he did not venture to start in the
dark. In the meantime the besieged sent post-haste
to M. de Vergetot to warn him of their situation;
and resolving to defend themselves as long as they
could, while waiting for a response to their message
they set about barricading their gates, turned their
scythes into weapons, fastened large hooks on long
poles, and collected all the instruments they could
find that could be used in attack or defence. As to
the Camisards, they encamped for the night near an

514

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

old chateau called Fan, about a gun-shot from
Lussan.

At break of day loud shouts from the town told
the Camisards that the expected relief was in sight,
and looking out they saw in the distance a troop of
soldiers advancing towards them; it was M. de
Vergetot at the head of his regiment, accompanied
by forty Irish officers.

The Protestants prepared themselves, as usual,
by reciting psalms and prayers, without taking any
notice of the shouts and threats of the townspeople,
and having finished their invocations, they marched
out to meet the approaching column. The cavalry,
commanded by Catinat, made a detour, taking a
sheltered way to an unguarded bridge over a small
river not far off, so as to outflank the royal forces,
which they were to attack in the rear as soon as
Cavalier and Ravanel should have engaged them
in front.

M. de Vergetot, on his side, continued to advance,
so that the Calvinists and the Catholics were soon
face to face. The battle began on both sides by a
volley; but Cavalier having seen his cavalry emerg-
ing from a neighbouring wood, and counting upon
their assistance, charged the enemy at the double
quick. Catinat judging by the noise of the firing
that his presence was necessary, charged also at a
gallop, falling on the flank of the Catholics.

515

CELEBRATED CRIMES

In this charge, one of M. de Vergetot's captains
was killed by a bullet, and the other by a sabre-cut,
and the grenadiers falling into disorder, first lost
ground and then fled, pursued by Catinat and his
horsemen, who, seizing them by the hair, despatched
them with their swords. Having tried in vain to
rally his men, M. de Vergetot, surrounded by a few
Irish, was forced in his turn to fly; he was hotly
pursued, and on the point of being taken, when by
good luck he reached the height of Gamene, with its
walls of rock. Jumping off his horse, he entered the
narrow pathway which led to the top, and en-
trenched himself with about a hundred men in this
natural fort. Cavalier perceiving that further pur-
suit would be dangerous, resolved to rest satisfied
with his victory; as he knew by his own experience
that neither men nor horses had eaten for eighteen
hours, he gave the signal for retreat, and retired on
Seyne, where he hoped to find provisions.

This defeat mortified the royal forces very deeply,
and they resolved to take their revenge. Having
learnt by their spies that on a certain night in No-
vember Cavalier and his band intended to sleep on
a mountain called Nages, they surrounded the moun-
tain during the night, so that at dawn Cavalier
found himself shut in on every side. As he wished
to see with his own eyes if the investment was com-
plete, he ordered his troops to fall into rank on the

5i6

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

top of the mountain, giving the command to Ravanel
and Catinat, and with a pair of pistols in his belt and
his carbine on his shoulder, he glided from bush to
bush and rock to rock, determined, if any weak spot
existed, to discover it; but the information he had
received was perfectly correct, every issue was
guarded.

Cavalier now set off to rejoin his troops, passing
through a ravine, but he had hardly taken thirty
steps when he found himself confronted by a cornet
and two dragoons who were lying in ambush. There
was no time to run away, and indeed such a thought
never entered the young commander's head ; he
walked straight up to them. On their side, the
dragoons advanced towards him, and the cornet
covering him with his pistol, called out, " Halt ! you
are Cavalier ; I know you. It is not possible for you
to escape; surrender at discretion." Cavalier's an-
swer was to blow out the cornet's brains with a shot
from his carbine, then throwing it behind him as of
no further use, he drew his two pistols from his belt,
walked up to the two dragoons, shot them both dead,
and rejoined his comrades unwounded. These, who
had believed him lost, welcomed him with cheers.

But Cavalier had something else to do than to
celebrate his return ; mounting his horse, he put him-
self at the head of his men, and fell upon the royal
troops with such impetuosity that they gave way at

517

CELEBRATED CRIMES

the first onset. Then a strange incident occurred.
About thirty women who had come to the camp with
provisions, carried away by their enthusiasm at the
sight of this success, threw themselves upon the
enemy, fighting like men. One young girl of about
seventeen, Lucrese Guigon by name, distinguished
herself amongst the others by her great valour. Not
content with encouraging her brethren by the cry
of "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!" she
tore sabres from the hands of the dead dragoons to
despatch the dying. Catinat, followed by ten of his
men, pursued the flying troops as far as the plain
of Calvisson. There they were able to rally, thanks
to the advance of the garrison to meet them.

Eighty dragoons lay dead on the field of battle,
while Cavalier had only lost five men.

As we shall see, Cavalier was not only a brave
soldier and a skilful captain, but also a just judge.
A few days after the deed of arms which we have
just related, he learned that a horrible murder had
been committed by four Camisards, who had then
retired into the forest of Bouquet. He sent a de-
tachment of twenty men with orders to arrest the
murderers and bring them before him. The follow-
ing are the details of the crime : —

The daughter of Baron Meyrargues, who was not
long married to a gentleman named M. de Miraman,
had set out on the 29th November for Ambroix to

5i8

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

join her husband, who was waiting for her there.
She was encouraged to do this by her coachman,
who had often met with Camisards in the neigh-
bourhood, and although a Catholic, had never re-
ceived any harm from them. She occupied her own
carriage, and was accompanied by a maid, a nurse,
a footman, and the coachman who had persuaded
her to undertake the journey. Two-thirds of the
way already lay safely behind them, when between
Lussan and Vaudras she was stopped by four men,
who made her get out of her carriage and accompany
them into the neighbouring forest. The account of
what then happened is taken from the deposition
of the maid. We copy it word for word : —

" These wretches having forced us," says she,
" to walk into the forest till we were at some dis-
tance from the high road, my poor mistress grew so
tired that she begged the man who walked beside
her to allow her to lean on his shoulder. He look-
ing round and seeing that they had reached a lonely
spot, replied, ' We need hardly go any farther,' and
made us sit down on a plot of grass which was to be
the scene of our martyrdom. My poor mistress be-
gan to plead with the barbarians in the most touch-
ing manner, and so sweetly that she would have
softened the heart of a demon. She offered them
her purse, her gold waistband, and a fine diamond

519

CELEBRATED CRIMES

which she drew from her ringer; but nothing could
move these tigers, and one of them said, ' I am
going to kill all the Catholics at once, and shall be-
gin with you.' ' What will you gain by my death? '
asked my mistress. 'Spare my life.' 'No; shut
up ! ' replied he. ' You shall die by my hand. Say
your prayers.' My good mistress threw herself
at once on her knees and prayed aloud that God
would show mercy to her and to her murderers, and
while she was thus praying she received a pistol-shot
in her left breast, and fell ; a second assassin cut her
across the face with his sword, and a third dropped
a large stone on her head, while the fourth killed
the nurse with a shot from his pistol. Whether it
was that they had no more loaded firearms, or that
they wished to save their ammunition, they were
satisfied with only giving me several bayonet
wounds. I pretended to be dead: they thought it
was really the case, and went away. Some time
after, seeing that everything had become quiet, and
hearing no sound, I dragged myself, dying as I was,
to where my dear mistress lay, and called her. As
it happened, she was not quite dead, and she said
in a faint voice, ' Stay with me, Suzon, till I die.'
She added, after a short pause, for she was hardly
able to speak, ' I die for my religion, and I hope that
God will have pity on me. Tell my husband that I
confide our little one to his care.' Having said this,

520

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

she turned her thoughts from the world, praying to
God in broken and tender words, and drew her last
breath as the night fell."

In obedience to Cavalier's orders, the four crimi-
nals were taken and brought before him. He was
then with his troops near Saint-Maurice de Case-
vielle ; he called a council of war, and having had the
prisoners tried for their atrocious deed, he summed
up the evidence in as clear a manner as any
lawyer could have done, and called upon the judges
to pronounce sentence. All the judges agreed that
the prisoners should be put to death, but just as the
sentence was made known one of the assassins
pushed aside the two men who guarded him, and
jumping down a rock, disappeared in the forest be-
fore any attempt could be made to stop him. The
three others were shot.

The Catholics also condemned many to be exe-
cuted, but the trials conducted by them were far
from being as remarkable for honour and justice as
was that which we have just described. We may
instance the trial of a poor boy of fourteen, the son
of a miller of Saint-Christol who had been broken on
the wheel just a month before. For a moment the
judges hesitated to condemn so young a boy to death,
but a witness presented himself who testified that the
little fellow was employed by the fanatics to strangle

52i

CELEBRATED CRIMES

Catholic children. Although no one believed the
evidence, yet it was seized on as a pretext : the un-
fortunate boy was condemned to death, and hanged
without mercy an hour later.

A great many people from the parishes devastated
by M. de Julien had taken refuge in Aussilargues,
in the parish of St. Andre. Driven by hunger and
misery, they went beyond the prescribed limits in
search of the means of subsistence. Planque hear-
ing of this, in his burning zeal for the Catholic faith
resolved not to leave such a crime unpunished. He
despatched a detachment of soldiers to arrest the
culprits : the task was easy, for they were all once
more inside the barrier and in their beds. They
were seized, brought to St. Andre's Church and
shut in; then, without trial of any kind, they were
taken, five at a time, and massacred : some were shot
and some cut down with sword or axe; all were
killed without exception — old and young, women
and children. One of the latter, who had received
three shots was still able to raise his head and cry,
" Where is father ? Why doesn't he come and take
me away ? "

Four men and a young girl who had taken refuge
in the town of Lasalle, one of the places granted to
the houseless villagers as an asylum, asked and re-
ceived formal permission from the captain of the
Soissonais regiment, by name Laplace, to go home on

522

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

important private business, on condition that they
returned the same night. They promised, and in the
intention of keeping this promise they all met on
their way back at a small farmhouse. Just as they
reached it a terrible storm came on. The men were
for continuing their way in spite of the weather, but
the young girl besought them to wait till daylight,
as she did not dare to venture out in the dark dur-
ing such a storm, and would die of fright if left
alone at the farm. The men, ashamed to desert their
companion, who was related to one of them, yielded
to her entreaties and remained, hoping that the
storm would be a sufficient excuse for the delay.
As soon as it was light, the five resumed their jour-
ney. But the news of their crime had reached the
ears of Laplace before they got back. They were
arrested, and all their excuses were of no avail.
Laplace ordered the men to be taken outside the
town and shot. The young girl was condemned to
be hanged; and the sentence was to be carried out
that very day, but some nuns who had been sent for
to prepare her for death, having vainly begged La-
place to show mercy, entreated the girl to declare
that she would soon become a mother. She indig-
nantly refused to save her life at the cost of her
good name, so the nuns took the lie on themselves
and made the necessary declaration before the cap-
tain, begging him if he had no pity for the mother

523

CELEBRATED CRIMES

to spare the child at least, by granting a reprieve
till it should be born. The captain was not for a
moment deceived, but he sent for a midwife and
ordered her to examine the young girl. At the end
of half an hour she declared that the assertion of the
nuns was true.

" Very well," said the captain : " let them both
be kept in prison for three months; if by the end of
that time the truth of this assertion is not self-evi-
dent, both shall be hanged." When this decision
was made known to the poor woman, she was over-
come by fear, and asked to see the captain again,
to whom she confessed that, led away by the en-
treaties of the nuns, she had told a lie.

Upon this, the woman was sentenced to be public-
ly whipped, and the young girl hanged on a gibbet
round which were placed the corpses of the four
men of whose death she was the cause.

As may easily be supposed, the " Cadets of the
Cross " vied with both Catholics and Protestants in
the work of destruction. One of their bands devoted
itself to destroying everything belonging to the new
converts from Beaucaire to Nimes. They killed a
woman and two children at Campuget, an old man
of eighty at a farm near Bouillargues, several per-
sons at Cicure, a young girl at Caissargues, a gar-
dener at Nimes, and many other persons, besides
carrying off all the flocks, furniture, and other prop-

524

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

erty they could lay hands on, and burning down the
farmhouses of Clairan, Loubes, Marine, Carlot,
Campoget, Miraman, La Bergerie, and Larnac — all
near St. Gilles and Manduel. " They stopped trav-
ellers on the highways," says Louvreloeil, " and by
way of finding out whether they were Catholic or
not, made them say in Latin the Lord's Prayer, the
Ave Maria, the Symbol of the Faith, and the Gen-
eral Confession, and those who were unable to do
this were put to the sword. In Dions nine corpses
were found supposed to have been killed by their
hands, and when the body of a shepherd who had
been in the service of the Sieur de Roussiere, a for-
mer minister, was found hanging to a tree, no one
doubted who were the murderers. At last they went
so far that one of their bands meeting the Abbe de
Saint Gilles on the road, ordered him to deliver up
to them one of his servants, a new convert, in order
to put him to death. It was in vain that the abbe
remonstrated with them, telling them it was a shame
to put such an affront on a man of his birth and
rank; they persisted none the less in their determi-
nation, till at last the abbe threw his arms round his
servant and presented his own body to the blows di-
rected at the other."

The author of The Troubles in the Cevennes re-
lates something surpassing all this which took place
at Montelus on the 22nd February 1704. "There

525

CELEBRATED CRIMES

were a few Protestants in the place," he says, " but
they were far outnumbered by the Catholics; these
being roused by a Capuchin from Bergerac, formed
themselves into a body of ' Cadets of the Cross/ and
hastened to serve their apprenticeship to the work of
assassination at the cost of their countrymen. They
therefore entered the house of one Jean Bernoin,
cut off his ears and further mutilated him, and then
bled him to death like a pig. On coming out of this
house they met Jacques Clas, and shot him in the
abdomen, so that his intestines obtruded; pushing
them back, he reached his house in a terrible con-
dition, to the great alarm of his wife, who was near
her confinement, and her children, who hastened to
the help of husband and father. But the murderers
appeared on the threshold, and, unmoved by the
cries and tears of the unfortunate wife and the poor
little children, they finished the wounded man, and
as the wife made an effort to prevent them, they
murdered her also, treating her dead body, when
they discovered her condition, in a manner too re-
volting for description; while a neighbour, called
Marie Silliot, who tried to rescue the children, was
shot dead ; but in her case they did not pursue their
vengeance any further. They then went into the open
country and meeting Pierre and Jean Bernard, uncle
and nephew, one aged forty-five and the other ten,
seized on them both, and putting a pistol into the

526

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

hands of the child, forced him to shoot his uncle.
In the meantime the boy's father had come up, and
him they tried to constrain to shoot his son; but
finding that no threats had any effect, they ended
by killing both, one by the sword, the other by the
bayonet.

" The reason why they put an end to father and
son so quickly was that they had noticed three young
girls of Bagnols going towards a grove of mulberry
trees, where they were raising silk-worms. The
men followed them, and as it was broad daylight
and the girls were therefore not afraid, they soon
came up with them. Having first violated them,
they hung them by the feet to a tree, and put them
to death in a horrible manner."

All this took place in the reign of Louis the
Great, and for the greater glory of the Catholic re-
ligion.

History has preserved the names of the five
wretches who perpetrated these crimes: they were
Pierre Vigneau, Antoine Rey, Jean d'Hugon, Guil-
laume, and Gontanille.

527

CHAPTER III

SUCH crimes, of which we have only described
a few, inspired horror in the breasts of those
who were neither maddened by fanaticism nor
devoured by the desire of vengeance. One of these,
a Protestant, Baron d'Aygaliers, without stopping
to consider what means he had at his command or
what measures were the best to take to accomplish
his object, resolved to devote his life to the pacifica-
tion of the Cevennes. The first thing to be
considered was, that if the Camisards were ever
entirely destroyed by means of Catholic troops
directed by de Baville, de Julien, and de Montrevel,
the Protestants, and especially the Protestant nobles
who had never borne arms, would be regarded as
cowards, who had been prevented by fear of death
or persecution from openly taking the part of the
Huguenots. He was therefore convinced that the
only course to pursue was to get his co-religionists
to put an end to the struggle themselves, as the one
way of pleasing His Majesty and of showing him
how groundless were the suspicions aroused in the
minds of men by the Catholic clergy.

528

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

This plan presented, especially to Baron d'Ayga-
liers, two apparently insurmountable difficulties, for
it could only be carried out by inducing the king
to relax his rigorous measures and by inducing the
Camisards to submit. Now the baron had no
connection with the court, and was not personally
acquainted with a single Huguenot chief.

The first thing necessary to enable the baron to
begin his efforts was a passport for Paris, and he
felt sure that as he was a Protestant neither M. de
Baville nor M. de Montrevel would give him one.
A lucky accident, however, relieved his embarrass-
ment and strengthened his resolution, for he thought
he saw in this accident the hand of Providence.

Baron d'Aygaliers found one day at the house of
a friend a M. de Paratte, a colonel in the king's
army, and who afterwards became major-general,
but who at the time we are speaking of was com-
mandant at Uzes. He was of a very impulsive
disposition, and so zealous in matters relating to
the Catholic religion and in the service of the king,
that he never could find himself in the presence of
a Protestant without expressing his indignation at
those who had taken up arms against their prince,
and also those who without taking up arms
encouraged the rebels in their designs. M.
d'Aygaliers understood that an allusion was meant
to himself, and he resolved to take advantage of it.

529

CELEBRATED CRIMES

So the next day he paid a visit to M. de Paratte,
and instead of demanding satisfaction, as the latter
quite expected, for the rudeness of his remarks on
the previous day, he professed himself very much
obliged for what he had said, which had made such
a deep impression on him that he had made up his
mind to give proof of his zeal and loyalty by going
to Paris and petitioning the king for a position at
court. De Paratte, charmed with what he had
heard, and enchanted with his convert, embraced
d'Aygaliers, and gave him, says the chronicler,
his blessing, and with the blessing a passport, and
wished him all the success that a father could wish
for his son. D'Aygaliers had now attained his
object, and furnished with the lucky safe-conduct,
he set out for Paris, without having communicated
his intentions to anyone, not even to his mother.

On reaching Paris he put up at a friend's house,
and drew up a statement of his plan : it was very
short and very clear.

" The undersigned has the honour to point out
humbly to His Majesty :

" That the severities and the persecutions which
have been employed by some of the village priests
have caused many people in the country districts
to take up arms, and that the suspicions which new
converts excited have driven a great many of them

530

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

to join the insurgents. In taking this step they
were also impelled by the desire to avoid imprison-
ment or removal from their homes, which were
the remedies chosen to keep them in the old faith.
This being the case, he thinks that the best means
of putting an end to this state of things would be
to take measures exactly the contrary of those
which produced it, such as putting an end to the
persecutions and permitting a certain number of
those of the Reformed religion to bear arms, that
they might go to the rebels and tell them that far
from approving of their actions the Protestants as
a whole wished to bring them back to the right
way by setting them a good example, or to fight
against them in order to show the king and France,
at the risk of their lives, that they disapproved of
the conduct of their co-religionists, and that the
priests had been in the wrong in writing to the court
that all those of the Reformed religion were in
favour of revolt."

D'Aygaliers hoped that the court would adopt
this plan; for if they did, one of two things must
happen : either the Camisards, by refusing to accept
the terms offered to them, would make themselves
odious to their brethren (for d'Aygaliers intended
to take with him on his mission of persuasion only
men of high reputation among the Reformers, who

531

CELEBRATED CRIMES

would be repelled by the Camisards if they refused
to submit), or else, by laying down their arms and
submitting, they would restore peace to the South
of France, obtain liberty of worship, set free their
brethren from the prisons and galleys, and come
to the help of the king in his war against the allied
powers, by supplying him in a moment with a large
body of disciplined troops ready to take the field
against his enemies ; for not only would the Cami-
sards, if they were supplied with officers, be available
for this purpose, but also those troops which were
at the moment employed in hunting down the
Camisards would be set free for this important duty.
This proposition was so clear and promised to
produce such useful results, that although the prej-
udice against the Reformers was very strong,
Baron d'Aygaliers found supporters who were at
once intelligent and genuine in the Duke de
Chevreuse and the Duke de Mont fort, his son.
These two gentlemen brought about a meeting be-
tween the baron and Chamillard, and the latter
presented him to the Marechal de Villars, to whom
he showed his petition, begging him to bring it to
the notice of the king; but M. de Villars, who was
well acquainted with the obstinacy of Louis, who,
as Baron de Peken says, " only saw the Reformers
through the spectacles of Madame de Maintenon,"
told d'Aygaliers that the last thing he should do

532

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

would be to give the king any hint of his plans,
unless he wished to see them come to nothing; on
the contrary, he advised him to go at once to Lyons
and wait there for him, M. de Villars; for he
would probably be passing through that town in a
few days, being almost certain to be appointed
governor of Languedoc in place of M. de Montrevel,
who had fallen under the king's displeasure and was
about to be recalled. In the course of the three inter-
views which d'Aygaliers had had with M. de Villars,
he had become convinced that de Villars was a man
capable of understanding his object; he therefore
followed his advice, as he believed his knowledge of
the king to be correct, and left Paris for Lyons.

The recall of M. de Montrevel had been brought
about in the following manner : — M. de Montrevel
having just come to Uzes, learned that Cavalier
and his troops were in the neighbourhood of Sainte-
Chatte; he immediately sent M. de La Jonquiere,
with six hundred picked marines and some com-
panies of dragoons from the regiment of Saint-
Sernin, but half an hour later, it having occurred
to him that these forces were not sufficient, he
ordered M. de Foix, lieutenant of the dragoons of
FimarQon, to join M. de La Jonquiere at Sainte-
Chatte with a hundred soldiers of his regiment, and
to remain with him if he were wanted; if not, to
return the same night.

533

CELEBRATED CRIMES

M. de Foix gave the necessary orders, chose a
hundred of his bravest men, put himself at their
head, and joined M. de La Jonquiere, showing him
his orders; but the latter, confiding in the courage
of his soldiers and unwilling to share with anyone
the glory of a victory of which he felt assured, not
only sent away M. de Foix, but begged him to go
back to Uzes, declaring to him that he had enough
troops to fight and conquer all the Camisards whom
he might encounter; consequently the hundred
dragoons whom the lieutenant had brought with
him were quite useless at Sainte-Chatte, while on
the contrary they might be very necessary some-
where else. M. de Foix did not consider that it
was his duty to insist on remaining under these
circumstances, and returned to Uzes, while M. de
La Jonquiere continued his route in order to pass
the night at Moussac. Cavalier left the town by
one gate just as M. de La Jonquiere entered at the
other. The wishes of the young Catholic com-
mander were thus in a fair way to be fulfilled, for
in all probability he would come up with his enemy
the next day.

As the village was inhabited for the most part
by new converts, the night instead of being spent in
repose was devoted to pillage.

The next day the Catholic troops reached
Moussac, which they found deserted, so they went (

534

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

on to Lascours-de-Cravier, a little village belonging1
to the barony of Boucairan, which M. de La
Jonquiere gave up to pillage, and where he had four
Protestants shot — a man, a woman, and two young
girls. He then resumed his route. As it had rained,
he soon came on the trail of the Camisards, the
terrible game which he was hunting down. For
three hours he occupied himself in this pursuit,
marching at the head of his troops, lest someone else
less careful than he should make some mistake,
when, suddenly raising his eyes, he perceived the
Camisards on a small eminence called Les Devois
de Maragnargues. This was the spot they had
chosen to await attack in, being eager for the
approaching combat.

As soon as Cavalier saw the royals advancing,
he ordered his men, according to custom, to offer
up prayers to God, and when these were finished
he disposed his troops for battle. His plan was to
take up position with the greater part of his men
on the other side of a ravine, which would thus
form a kind of moat between him and the king's
soldiers; he also ordered about thirty horsemen to
make a great round, thus reaching unseen a little
wood about two hundred yards to his left, where
they could conceal themselves; and lastly, he sent
to a point on the right sixty foot-soldiers chosen
from his best marksmen, whom he ordered not to

535

CELEBRATED CRIMES

fire until the royal forces were engaged in the
struggle with him.

M. de La Jonquiere having approached to within
a certain distance, halted, and sent one of his lieu-
tenants named de Sainte-Chatte to make a recon-
naissance, which he did, advancing beyond the men
in ambush, who gave no sign of their existence,
while the officer quietly examined the ground. But
Sainte-Chatte was an old soldier of fortune and not
easily taken in, so on his return, while explaining
the plan of the ground chosen by Cavalier for the
disposition of his troops to M. de La Jonquiere,
he added that he should be very much astonished
if the young Camisard had not employed the little
wood on his left and the lie of the ground on his
right as cover for soldiers in ambush ; but M. de La
Jonquiere returned that the only thing of import-
ance was to know the position of the principal body
of troops in order to attack it at once. Sainte-
Chatte told him that the principal body was that
which was before his eyes, and that on this subject
there could be no mistake; for he had approached
near enough to recognise Cavalier himself in the
front rank.

This was enough for M. de La Jonquiere : he put
himself at the head of his men and rode straight to
the ravine, beyond which Cavalier and his comrades
awaited him in order of battle. Having got within

536

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

a pistol-shot, M. de La Jonquiere gave the order
to fire, but he was so near that Cavalier heard the
words and saw the motion made by the men as they
made ready; he therefore gave a rapid sign to his
men, who threw themselves on their faces, as did
their leader, and the bullets passed over them with-
out doing any harm. M. de La Jonquiere, who
believed them all dead, was astonished when Cavalier
and his Camisards rose up and rushed upon the royal
troops, advancing to the sound of a psalm. At a
distance of ten paces they fired, and then charged
the enemy at the point of the bayonet. At this
moment the sixty men in ambush to the right opened
fire, while the thirty horsemen to the left, uttering
loud shouts, charged at a gallop. Hearing this
noise, and seeing death approach them in three
different directions, the royals believed themselves
surrounded, and did not attempt to make a stand;
the men, throwing away their weapons, took to their
heels, the officers alone and a few dragoons whom
they had succeeded in rallying making a desperate
resistance.

Cavalier was riding over the field of battle, sa-
bring all the fugitives whom he met, when he caught
sight of a group, composed of ten naval officers,
standing close together and back to back, spontoon
in hand, facing the Camisards, who surrounded
them. He spurred up to them, passing through the

537

CELEBRATED CRIMES

ranks of his soldiers, and not pausing till he was
within fifteen paces of them, although they raised
their weapons to fire. Then making a sign with his
hand that he wished to speak to them, he said,
" Gentlemen, surrender. I shall give quarter, and
in return for the ten lives I now spare you, will ask
that my father, who is in prison at Nimes, be
released."

For sole answer, one of the officers fired and
wounded the young chief's horse in the head.
Cavalier drew a pistol from his belt, took aim at the
officer and killed him, then turning again to the
others, he asked, " Gentlemen, are you as obstinate
as your comrade, or do you accept my offer? " A
second shot was the reply, and a bullet grazed his
shoulder. Seeing that no other answer was to be
hoped for, Cavalier turned to his soldiers. " Do
your duty," said he, and withdrew, to avoid seeing
the massacre. The nine officers were shot.

M. de La Jonquiere, who had received a slight
wound in the cheek, abandoned his horse in order to
climb over a wall. On the other side he made a
dragoon dismount and give him his horse, on which
he crossed the river Gardon, leaving behind him on
the battlefield twenty-five officers and six hundred
soldiers killed. This defeat was doubly disastrous
to the royal cause, depriving it of the flower of its
officers, almost all of those who fell belonging to

533

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

the noblest families of France, and also because the
Camisards gained what they so badly needed, mus-
kets, swords, and bayonets in great quantities, as
well as eighty horses, these latter enabling Cavalier
to complete the organisation of a magnificent troop
of cavalry.

The recall of the Marechal de Montrevel was
the consequence of this defeat, and M. de Villars,
as he had anticipated, was appointed in his place.
But before giving up his governorship Montrevel
resolved to efface the memory of the check which
his lieutenant's foolhardiness had caused, but for
which, according to the rules of war, the general
had to pay the penalty. His plan was by spreading
false rumours and making feigned marches to draw
the Camisards into a trap in which they, in their
turn, would be caught. This was the less difficult
to accomplish as their latest great victory had made
Cavalier over confident both in himself and his men.

In fact, since the incident connected with the
naval officers the troops of Cavalier had increased
enormously in numbers, everyone desiring to serve
under so brave a chief, so that he had now under
him over one thousand infantry and two hundred
cavalry; they were furnished, besides, just like regu-
lar troops, with a bugler for the cavalry, and eight
drums and a fife for the infantry.

The marechal felt sure that his departure would
539

CELEBRATED CRIMES

be the signal for some expedition into the level
country under Cavalier, so it was given out that he
had left for Montpellier, and had sent forward some
of his baggage waggons to that place. On April
15th he was informed that Cavalier, deceived by the
false news, had set out on the 16th April, intending
to pass the night at Caveyrac, a small town about a
league from Nimes, that he might be ready next day
to make a descent on La Vannage. This news was
brought to M. de Montrevel by a village priest
called Verrien, who had in his pay vigilant and
faithful spies in whom he had every confidence.

Montrevel accordingly ordered the commandant
of Lunel, M. de Grandval, to set out the next day,
very early in the morning, with the Charolais regi-
ment and five companies of the Fimarcon and Saint-
Sernin dragoons, and to repair to the heights of
Boissieres, where instructions would await him.
Sandricourt, governor of Nimes, was at the same
time directed to withdraw as many men as possible
from the garrison, both Swiss and dragoons, and
send them by night towards Saint-Come and Claren-
sac; lastly, he himself set out, as he had said, but
instead of going on to Montpellier, he stopped at
Sommieres, whence he could observe the movements
of Cavalier.

Cavalier, as M. de Montrevel already knew, was
to sleep on the 15th at Caveyrac. On this day

540

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

Cavalier reached the turning-point in his magnificent
career. As he entered the town with his soldiers,
drums beating and flags flying, he was at the zenith
of his power. He rode the splendid horse M. de La
Jonquiere had abandoned in his flight; behind him,
serving as page, rode his young brother, aged ten,
followed by four grooms ; he was preceded by twelve
guards dressed in red; and as his colleague Roland
had taken the title of Comte, he allowed himself
to be called Duke of the Cevennes.

At his approach half of the garrison, which was
commanded by M. de Maillan, took possession of
the church and half of the citadel; but as Cavalier
was more bent on obtaining food and rest for his
soldiers than of disturbing the town, he billeted
his men on the townspeople, and placed sentinels at
the church and fortress, who exchanged shots all
the night through with the royal troops. The next
morning, having destroyed the fortifications, he
marched out of the town again, drums beating and
flags flying as before. When almost in sight of
Nimes he made his troops, which had never before
been so numerous or so brilliant, perform a great
many evolutions, and then continued his way
towards Nages.

M. de Montrevel received a report at nine o'clock
in the morning of the direction Cavalier and his
troops had taken, and immediately left Sommieres,

54i

CELEBRATED CRIMES

followed by six companies of Fimarcon dragoons,
one hundred Irish free-lances, three hundred rank
and file of the Hainault regiment, and one company
each of the Soissonnais, Charolais, and Menon regi-
ments, forming in all a corps over nine hundred
strong. They took the direction of Vaunages, above
Clarensac; but suddenly hearing the rattle of
musketry behind them, they wheeled and made for
Langlade.

They found that Grandval had already encoun-
tered the Camisards. These being fatigued had
withdrawn into a hollow between Boissieres and the
windmill at Langlade, in order to rest. The infan-
try lay down, their arms beside them; the cavalry
placed themselves at the feet of their horses, the
bridle on arm. Cavalier himself, Cavalier the inde-
fatigable, broken by the fatigues of the preceding
days, had fallen asleep, with his young brother
watching beside him. Suddenly he felt himself
shaken by the arm, and rousing up, he heard on all
sides cries of "Kill! Kill!" and "To arms! To
arms! " Grandval and his men, who had been sent
to find out where the Camisards were, had suddenly
come upon them.

The infantry formed, the cavalry sprang to their
saddles, Cavalier leaped on his horse, and drawing
his sword, led his soldiers as usual against the
dragoons, and these, as was also usual, ran away,

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MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

leaving twelve of their number dead on the field.
The Camisard cavalry soon gave up the pursuit, as
they found themselves widely separated from the
infantry and from their leader; for Cavalier had
been unable to keep up with them, his horse having
received a bullet through its neck.

Still they followed the flying dragoons for a good
hour, from time to time a wounded dragoon falling
from his horse, till at last the Camisard cavalry
found itself confronted by the Charolais regiment,
drawn up in battle array, and behind them the royal
dragoons, who had taken refuge there, and were
re-forming.

Carried on by the rapidity of their course, the
Camisards could not pull up till they were within a
hundred yards of the enemy; they fired once, killing
several, then turned round and retreated.

When a third of the way back had been covered,
they met their chief, who had found a fresh horse
by the wayside standing beside its dead master. He
arrived at full gallop, as he was anxious to unite
his cavalry and infantry at once, as he had seen the
forces of the marechal advancing, who, as we have
already said, had turned in the direction of the firing.
Hardly had Cavalier effected the desired junction of
his forces than he perceived that his retreat was
cut off. He had the royal troops both before and
behind him.

543
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CELEBRATED CRIMES

The young chief saw that a desperate dash to
right or left was all that remained to him, and not
knowing this country as well as the Cevennes, he
asked a peasant the way from Soudorgues to Nages,
that being the only one by which he could escape.
There was no time to inquire whether the peasant
was Catholic or Protestant; he could only trust to
chance, and follow the road indicated. But a few
yards from the spot where the road from Soudor-
gues to Nages joins the road to Nimes he found
himself in face of Marechal Montrevel's troops
under the command of Menon. However, as they
hardly outnumbered the Camisards, these did not
stop to look for another route, but bending forward
in their saddles, they dashed through the lines at full
gallop, taking the direction of Nages, hoping to
reach the plain round Calvisson. But the village,
the approaches, the issues were all occupied by royal
troops, and at the same time Grandval and the
marechal joined forces, while Menon collected his
men together and pushed forward. Cavalier was
completely surrounded : he gave the situation a
comprehensive glance — his foes were five to one.

Rising in his stirrups, so that he could see over
every head, Cavalier shouted so loud that not only
his own men heard but also those of the enemy :
" My children, if our hearts fail us now, we shall
be taken and broken on the wheel. There is only

544

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

one means of safety: we must cut our way at full
gallop through these people. Follow me, and keep
close order ! "

So speaking, he dashed on the nearest group, fol-
lowed by all his men, who formed a compact mass,
round which the three corps of royal troops closed.
Then there was everywhere a hand-to-hand battle:
there was no time to load and fire; swords flashed
and fell, bayonets stabbed, the royals and the Cam-
isards took each other by the throat and hair. For
an hour this demoniac fight lasted, during which
Cavalier lost five hundred men and slew a thousand
of the enemy. At last he won through, followed by
about two hundred of his troops, and drew a long
breath; but finding himself in the centre of a large
circle of soldiers, he made for a bridge, where alone
it seemed possible to break through, it being only
guarded by a hundred dragoons.

He divided his men into two divisions, one to
force the bridge, the other to cover the retreat.
Then he faced his foes like a wild boar driven to bay.

Suddenly loud shouts behind him announced that
the bridge was forced; but the Camisards, instead
of keeping the passage open for their leader, scat-
tered over the plain and sought safety in flight. But
a child threw himself before them, pistol in hand.
It was Cavalier's young brother, mounted on one
of the small wild horses of Camargues of that

545

CELEBRATED CRIMES

Arab breed which was introduced into Languedoc
by the Moors from Spain. Carrying a sword and
carbine proportioned to his size, the boy addressed
the flying men. " Where are you going? " he cried.
" Instead of running away like cowards, line the
river banks and oppose the enemy to facilitate my
brother's escape." Ashamed of having deserved
such reproaches, the Camisards stopped, rallied,
lined the banks of the river, and by keeping up a
steady fire, covered Cavalier's retreat, who crossed
without having received a single wound, though
his horse was riddled with bullets and he had been
forced to change his sword three times.

Still the combat raged; but gradually Cavalier
managed to retreat: a plain cut by trenches, the
falling darkness, a wood which afforded cover, all
combined to help him at last. Still his rearguard,
harassed by the enemy, dotted the ground it passed
over with its dead, until at last both victors and van-
quished were swallowed up by night. The fight had
lasted ten hours, Cavalier had lost more than five
hundred men, and the royals about a thousand.

" Cavalier," says M. de Villars, in his Memoirs,
" acted on this day in a way which astonished every-
one. For who could help being astonished to see a
nobody, inexperienced in the art of warfare, bear
himself in such difficult and trying circumstances
like some great general? At one period of the day

546

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

he was followed everywhere by a dragoon ; Cavalier
shot at him and killed his horse. The dragoon
returned the shot, but missed. Cavalier had two
horses killed under him; the first time he caught a
dragoon's horse, the second time he made one of
his own men dismount and go on foot."

M. de Montrevel also showed himself to be a
gallant soldier; wherever there was danger there
was he, encouraging officers and soldiers by his
example : one Irish captain was killed at his side,
another fatally wounded, and a third slightly hurt.
Grandval, on his part, had performed miracles : his
horse was shot under him, and M. de Montrevel
replaced it by one of great value, on which he joined
in the pursuit of the Camisards. After this affair
M. de Montrevel gave up his place to M. de Villars,
leaving word for Cavalier that it was thus he took
leave of his friends.

Although Cavalier came out of this battle with
honour, compelling even his enemies to regard him
as a man worthy of their steel, it had nevertheless
destroyed the best part of his hopes. He made a
halt near Pierredon to gather together the remnant
of his troops, and truly it was but a remnant which
remained. Of those who came back the greater
number were without weapons, for they had thrown
them away in their flight. Many were incapacitated
for service by their wounds ; and lastly, the cavalry

547

CELEBRATED CRIMES

could hardly be said to exist any longer, as the few
men who survived had been obliged to abandon their
horses, in order to get across the high ditches which
were their only cover from the dragoons during the
flight.

Meantime the royalists were very active, and
Cavalier felt that it would be imprudent to remain
long at Pierredon, so setting out during the night,
and crossing the Gardon, he buried himself in the
forest of Hieuzet, whither he hoped his enemies
would not venture to follow him. And in fact the
first two days were quiet, and his troops benefited
greatly by the rest, especially as they were able to
draw stores of all kinds — wheat, hay, arms, and
ammunition — from an immense cave which the
Camisards had used for a long time as a magazine
and arsenal. Cavalier now also employed it as a
hospital, and had the wounded carried there, that
their wounds might receive attention.

Unfortunately, Cavalier was soon obliged to quit
the forest, in spite of his hopes of being left in
peace; for one day on his way back from a visit
to the wounded in the cave, whose existence was a
secret, he came across a hundred miquelcts who had
penetrated thus far, and who would have taken him
prisoner if he had not, with his accustomed presence
of mind and courage, sprung from a rock twenty
feet high. The miquelcts fired at him, but no bullet

548

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

reached him. Cavalier rejoined his troops, but fear-
ing to attract the rest of the royalists to the place,
retreated to some distance from the cave, as it was
of the utmost importance that it should not be dis-
covered, since it contained all his resources.

Cavalier had now reached one of those moments
when Fortune, tired of conferring favours, turns her
back on the favourite. The royalists had often
noticed an old woman from the village of Hieuzet
going towards the forest, sometimes carrying a
basket in her hand, sometimes with a hamper on
her head, and it occurred to them that she was
supplying the hidden Camisards with provisions.
She was arrested and brought before General
Lalande, who began his examination by threatening
that he would have her hanged if she did not at
once declare the object of her frequent journeys to
the forest without reserve. At first she made use
of all kinds of pretexts, which only strengthened
the suspicions of Lalande, who, ceasing his ques-
tions, ordered her to be taken to the gallows and
hanged. The old woman walked to the place of
execution with such a firm step that the general
began to think he would get no information from
her, but at the foot of the ladder her courage failed.
She asked to be taken back before the general, and
having been promised her life, she revealed every-
thing.

549

CELEBRATED CRIMES

M. de Lalande put himself at once at the head of a
strong detachment of miquclets, and forced the
woman to walk before them till they reached the
cavern, which they never would have discovered
without a guide, so cleverly was the entrance hidden
by rocks and brushwood. On entering, the first thing
that met their eye was the wounded, about thirty in
number. The miquclets threw themselves upon
them and slaughtered them. This deed accom-
plished, they went farther into the cave, which to
their great surprise contained a thousand things
they never expected to find there — heaps of grain,
sacks of flour, barrels of wine, casks of brandy,
quantities of chestnuts and potatoes; and besides
all this, chests containing ointments, drugs and lint,
and lastly a complete arsenal of muskets, swords,
and bayonets, a quantity of powder ready-made,
and sulphur, saltpetre, and charcoal — in short,
everything necessary for the manufacture of more,
down to small mills to be turned by hand. Lalande
kept his word : the life of an old woman was not too
much to give in return for such a treasure.

Meantime M. de Villars, as he had promised,
took up Baron d'Aygaliers in passing through
Lyons, so that during the rest of the journey the
peacemaker had plenty of time to expatiate on his
plans. As M. de Villars was a man of tact and a
lover of justice, and desired above all things to bring

550

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

a right spirit to bear on the performance of the
duties of his new office, in which his two predeces-
sors had failed, he promised the baron " to keep,"
as he expressed himself, his " two ears open " and
listen to both sides, and as a first proof of impar-
tiality he refused to give any opinion until he had
heard M. de Julien, who was coming to meet him at
Tournon.

When they arrived at Tournon, M. de Julien was
there to receive them, and had a very different
story to tell from that which M. de Villars had heard
from d'Aygaliers. According to him, the only pacifi-
cation possible was the complete extermination of
the Camisards. He felt himself very hardly treated
in that he had been allowed to destroy only four
hundred villages and hamlets in the Upper Cevennes,
assuring de Villars with the confidence of a man
who had studied the matter profoundly, that they
should all have been demolished without exception,
and all the peasants killed to the last man.

So it came to pass that M. de Villars arrived at
Beaucaire placed like Don Juan between the spirits
of good and evil, the one advising clemency and the
other murder. M. de Villars not being able to make
up his mind, on reaching Nimes, d'Aygaliers assem-
bled the principal Protestants of the town, told them
of his plan, showing them its practicability, so that
they also joined in the good work, and drew up a

551

CELEBRATED CRIMES

document in which they asked the marechal to allow
them to take up arms and march against the rebels,
as they were determined either to bring them back
into the good way by force of example or to fight
them as a proof of their loyalty.

This petition, which was signed by several nobles
and by almost all the lawyers and merchants of the
city of Nimes, was presented to M. de Villars on
Tuesday, 22nd April, 1704, by M. de Albenas, at
the head of seven or eight hundred persons of the
Reformed religion. M. de Villars received the
request kindly, thanked its bearer and those who
accompanied him, assuring them that he had no
doubt of the sincerity of their professions, and that
if he were in want of help he would have recourse
to them with as much confidence as if they were old
Catholics. He hoped, however, to win the rebels
back by mildness, and he begged them to second
his efforts in this direction by spreading abroad the
fact that an amnesty was offered to all those who
would lay down arms and return to their houses
within a week. The very next day but one, M. de
Villars set out from Nimes to visit all the principal
towns, in order to make himself acquainted with
men, things, and places.

Although the answer to the petition had been a
delicate refusal, d'Aygaliers was not discouraged,
but followed M. de Villars everywhere. When the

552

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

latter arrived at Alais, the new governor sent for
MM. de Lalande and de Baville, in order to consult
them as to the best means of inducing the Camisards
to lay down their arms. Baron d'Aygaliers was
summoned to this consultation, and described his
plan to the two gentlemen. As he expected, both
were opposed to it ; however, he tried to bring them
over to his side by presenting to them what seemed
to him to be cogent reasons for its adoption. But
de Lalande and de Baville made light of all his
reasons, and rejected his proposals with such vehe-
mence, that the marechal, however much inclined
to the side of d'Aygaliers, did not venture to act
quite alone, and said he would not decide on any
course until he reached Uzes.

D'Aygaliers saw clearly that until he had obtained
the approbation of either the general or the intend-
ant, he would get nothing from the marechal. He
therefore considered which of the two he should try
to persuade, and although de Baville was his
personal enemy, having several times shown his
hatred for him and his family, he decided to address
himself to him.

In consequence, the next day, to the great aston-
ishment of M. de Baville, d'Aygaliers paid him a
visit. The intendant received him coldly but
politely, asked him to sit down, and when he was
seated begged to know the motive which had brought

553

CELEBRATED CRIMES

him. " Sir," replied the baron, "you have given my
family and me such cause of offence that I had come
to the firm resolution never to ask a favour of you,
and as perhaps you may have remarked during the
journey we have taken with M. le marechal, I would
rather have died of thirst than accept a glass of
water from you. But I have come here to-day not
upon any private matter, to obtain my own ends,
but upon a matter which concerns the welfare of
the State. I therefore beg you to put out of your
mind the dislike which you have to me and mine,
and I do this the more earnestly that your dislike
can only have been caused by the fact that our
religion is different from yours — a thing which
could neither have been foreseen nor prevented. My
entreaty is that you do not try to set M. le marechal
against the course which I have proposed to him,
which I am convinced would bring the disorders in
our province to an end, stop the occurrence of the
many unfortunate events which I am sure you look
on with regret, and spare you much trouble and
embarrassment."

The intendant was much touched by this calm
speech, and above all by the confidence which M.
d'Aygaliers had shown him, and replied that he had
only offered opposition to the plan of pacification
because he believed it to be impracticable. M.
d'Aygaliers then warmly pressed him to try if before

554

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

rejecting it for ever, and in the end M. de Baville
withdrew his opposition.

M. d'Aygaliers hastened to the marechal, who
finding himself no longer alone in his favourable
opinion, made no further delay, but told the baron
to call together that very day all the people whom
he thought suitable for the required service, and
desired that they should be presented to him the next
morning before he set out for Nimes.

The next day, instead of the fifty men whom the
marechal had thought could be gathered together,
d'Aygaliers came to him followed by eighty, who
were almost all of good and many of noble family.
The meeting took place, by the wish of the baron, in
the courtyard of the episcopal palace. " This palace,"
says the baron in his Memoirs, " which was of great
magnificence, surrounded by terraced gardens and
superbly furnished, was occupied by Monseigneur
Michel Poncet de La Riviere. He was a man pas-
sionately devoted to pleasures of all kinds, espe-
cially to music, women, and good cheer. There
were always to be found in his house good musi-
cians, pretty women, and excellent wines. These
latter suited him so well that he never left the table
without being in a pleasant humour, and at such
a moment if it came into his head that anyone in
his diocese was not as good a Christian as himself,
he would sit down and write to M. de Baville, urging

555

CELEBRATED CRIMES

that the delinquent ought to be sent into exile. He
often did this honour to my late father." M.
d'Aygaliers goes on to say that " on seeing such a
great number of Huguenots in the court who were
all declaring that they were better servants of the
king than the Catholics, he almost fell from his
balcony with vexation and surprise. This vexation
increased when he saw M. de Villars and M. de
Baville, who had apartments in the palace, come
down into the court and talk to these people. One
hope still remained to him : it was that the marechal
and the intendant had come down to send them
away; but this last hope was cruelly disappointed
when he heard M. de Villars say that he accepted
their service and expected them to obey d'Aygaliers
in all matters concerning the service of the king."

But this was not all that had to be accomplished :
arms were necessary for the Protestants, and though
their number was not great, there was a difficulty in
finding them weapons. The unfortunate Calvinists
had been disarmed so often that even their table-
knives had been carried off, so it was useless to
search their houses for guns and sabres.
D'Aygaliers proposed that they should take the arms
of the townspeople, but M. de Villars considered
that it would offend the Catholics to have their arms
taken from them and given to the Protestants. In
the end, however, this was the course that had to

556

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

be adopted : M. de Paratte was ordered to give fifty
muskets and the same number of bayonets to M.
d'Aygaliers, who also received, as the reward of his
long patience, from M. de Villars, before the latter
left for Nimes, the following commission : —

" We, Marechal de Villars, general in the armies
of the king, etc., etc., have given permission to M.
d'Aygaliers, nobleman and Protestant of the town
of Uzes, and to fifty men chosen by him, to make
war on the Camisards.

(Signed) " Villars

(Countersigned) " Moreton
"Given at Uzes, the 4th of May 1704."

Hardly had M. de Villars set out for Nimes than
d'Aygaliers met with fresh difficulties. The bishop,
who could not forget that his episcopal palace had
been turned into barracks for Huguenots, went
from house to house threatening those who had
promised to countenance d'Aygaliers' plans, and
strictly forbidding the captains of the town troops
to deliver any weapons to the Protestants. Fortu-
nately, d'Aygaliers had not accomplished so much
without having learned not to draw back when the
road grew rough, so he also on his side went about
confirming the strong and encouraging the feeble,
and called on M. de Paratte to beg him to carry out

557

CELEBRATED CRIMES

the orders of M. de Villars. De Paratte was happily
an old soldier, whose one idea was that discipline
should be maintained, so that he gave the guns and
bayonets to d'Aygaliers on the spot, without a word
of objection, and thus enabled the latter to start at
five o'clock next morning with his little band.

Meantime de Baville and de Lalande had been
reflecting what great influence d'Aygaliers would
gain in the province should he succeed in his aims,
and their jealousy had made them resolve to fore-
stall him in his work, by themselves inducing
Cavalier to abandon his present course. They did
not conceal from themselves that this would be
difficult, but as they could command means of cor-
ruption which were not within the power of d'Ayga-
liers, they did not despair of success.

They therefore sent for a countryman called La-
combe, in order to enlist him on their side; for Cava-
lier, when a boy, had been his shepherd for two
years, and both had remained friends ever since:
this man undertook to try and bring about a meet-
ing between the two gentlemen and Cavalier — an
enterprise which would have been dangerous for
anyone else. He promised first of all to explain to
Cavalier the offers of MM. de Baville and de
Lalande.

Lacombe kept his word : he set off the same day,
and two days later appeared before Cavalier. The

558

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

first feeling of the young chief was astonishment,
the second pleasure. Lacombe could not have chosen
a better moment to speak of peace to his former
shepherd.

" Indeed," says Cavalier in his Memoirs, " the
loss which I had just sustained at Nages was doubly
painful to me because it was irreparable. I had lost
at one blow not only a great number of weapons,
all my ammunition, and all my money, but also a
body of men, inured to danger and fatigue, and
capable of any undertaking; besides all this, I had
been robbed of my stores — a loss which made itself
felt more than all the others put together, because
as long as the secret of the cavern was kept, in all
our misfortunes we were never without resources;
but from the moment it got into the possession of
our enemies we were quite destitute. The country
was ravaged, my friends had grown cold, their
purses were empty, a hundred towns had been sacked
and burned, the prisons were full of Protestants,
the fields were uncultivated. Added to all this, the
long promised help from England had never arrived,
and the new marechal had appeared in the province
accompanied by fresh troops."

Nevertheless, in spite of his desperate position,
Cavalier listened to the propositions laid before him
by Lacombe with cold and haughty front, and his
reply was that he would never lay down arms till

559

CELEBRATED CRIMES

the Protestants had obtained the right to the free
exercise of their religion.

Firm as was this answer, Lalande did not despair
of inducing Cavalier to come to terms : he therefore
wrote him a letter with his own hand, asking him
for an interview, and pledging his word that if they
came to no agreement Cavalier should be free to
retire without any harm being done him; but he
added that, if he refused this request, he should
regard him as an enemy to peace, and responsible
for all the blood which might be shed in future.

This overture, made with a soldier's frankness,
had a great effect on Cavalier, and in order that
neither his friends nor his enemies should have the
least excuse for blaming him, he resolved to show
everyone that he was eager to seize the first chance
of making peace on advantageous terms.

He therefore replied to Lalande, that he would
come to the bridge of Avene on that very day, the
1 2th May, at noon, and sent his letter by Catinat,
ordering him to deliver it into the hands of the
Catholic general himself.

Catinat was worthy of his mission. He was a
peasant from Cay la, whose real name was Abdias
Maurel. He had served under Marshal Catinat in
Italy, the same who had maintained so gallant a
struggle against Prince Eugene. When Maurel
returned home he could talk of nothing but his

560

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

marshal and his campaigns, so that he soon went
among his neighbours by the name of " Catinat."
He was, as we have seen, Cavalier's right hand,
who had placed him in command of his cavalry, and
who now entrusted him with a still more dangerous
post, that of envoy to a man who had often said
that he would give 2000 livres to him who would
bring him the head of Cavalier, and 1000 livres each
for the heads of his two lieutenants. Catinat was
quite well aware of this offer of Lalande's, yet he
appeared before the general perfectly cool and calm;
only, either from a feeling of propriety or of pride,
he was dressed in full uniform.

The bold and haughty expression of the man who
presented Cavalier's letter astonished the general,
who asked him his name.

" I am Catinat," he answered.

" Catinat ! " exclaimed Lalande in surprise.

" Yes, Catinat, commander of the cavalry of
Cavalier."

" What ! " said Lalande, " are you the Catinat
who massacred so many people in Beaucaire? "

" Yes, I am. I did it, but it was my duty."

" Well," exclaimed M. de Lalande, " you show
great hardihood in daring to appear before me."

" I came," said Catinat proudly, " trusting to your
honour and to the promise that Brother Cavalier
gave me that nothing should happen to me."

56i

CELEBRATED CRIMES

" He was quite right," returned Lalande, taking
the letter. Having read it, he said, " Go back to
Cavalier and assure him that I shall be at the bridge
of Avene at noon, accompanied only by a few
officers and thirty dragoons. I expect to find him
there with a similar number of men."

" But," answered Catinat, " it is possible that
Brother Cavalier may not wish to come with so poor
a following."

" If so," returned Lalande, " then tell him that he
may bring his whole army if he likes, but that I
shall not take a single man with me more than I
have said; as Cavalier has confidence in me, I have
confidence in him."

Catinat reported Lalande's answer to his chief:
it was of a kind that he understood and liked, so
leaving the rest of his troops at Massanes, he chose
sixty men from his infantry, and eight horsemen as
escort. On coming in sight of the bridge, he saw
Lalande approaching from the other side. He at
once ordered his sixty men to halt, went a few steps
farther with his eight horsemen, and then ordered
them in their turn to stop, and advanced alone
towards the bridge. Lalande had acted in the same
manner with regard to his dragoons and officers,
and now dismounting, came towards Cavalier.

The two met in the middle of the bridge, and
saluted with the courtesy of men who had learned

562

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

to esteem each other on the field of battle. Then
after a short silence, during which they examined
each other, Lalande spoke.

" Sir," said he, " the king in his clemency desires
to put an end to the war which is going on between
his subjects, and which can only result in the ruin
of his kingdom. As he knows that this war has
been instigated and supported by the enemies of
France, he hopes to meet no opposition to his
wishes among those of his subjects who were
momentarily led astray, but to whom he now offers
pardon. "

" Sir," answered Cavalier, " the war not having
been begun by the Protestants, they are always
ready for peace — but a real peace, without restric-
tion or reserve. They have no right, I know, to lay
down conditions, but I hope they will be permitted
to discuss those which may be laid down for them.
Speak openly, sir, and let me know what the offers
are that you have been authorised to make to us,
that I may judge if we can accept them."

" But how would it be," said Lalande, " if you
were mistaken, and if the king desired to know what
conditions you would consider reasonable? "

"If that is so," answered Cavalier, " I will tell
you our conditions at once, in order not to prolong
the negotiations ; for every minute's delay, as you
know, costs someone his life or fortune."

563

CELEBRATED CRIMES

" Then tell me what your conditions are," re-
turned Lalande.

"Well," said Cavalier, "our demands are three:
first, liberty of conscience; secondly, the release of
all prisoners who have been condemned to imprison-
ment or the galleys because of their religion; and
thirdly, that if we are not granted liberty of con-
science we may be at least permitted to leave the
kingdom."

" As far as I can judge," replied Lalande, " I do
not believe that the king will accept the first propo-
sition, but it is possible that he may accede to the
third. In that case, how many Protestants would
you take with you ? "

" Ten thousand of all ages and both sexes."

" The number is excessive, sir. I believe that His
Majesty is not disposed to go beyond three thou-
sand."

" Then," replied Cavalier, " there is nothing more
to be said, for I could not accept passports for any
smaller number, and I could accept for the ten
thousand only on condition that the king would
grant us three months in which to dispose of our
possessions and withdraw from the country without
being molested. Should His Majesty, however, not
be pleased to allow us to leave the kingdom, then
we beg that our edicts be re-enacted and our privi-
leges restored, whereupon we shall become once

564

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

more, what we were formerly, His Majesty's loyal
and obedient servants."

" Sir," said Lalande, " I shall lay your conditions
before M. le marechal, and if no satisfactory con-
clusion can be arrived at, it will be to me a matter
of profound regret. And now, sir, will you permit
me to inspect more closely the gallant men with
whose help you have done such astounding deeds ?"

Cavalier smiled; for these "gallant men" when
caught had been broken on the wheel, burnt at the
stake, or hanged like brigands. His sole answer
was an inclination of the head as he turned and led
the way to his little escort. M. de Lalande followed
him with perfect confidence, and, passing by the eight
horsemen who were grouped on the road, he walked
up to the infantry, and taking out of his pocket a
handful of gold, he scattered it before them,
saying —

" There, my men ! that is to drink the king's
health with."

Not a man stooped to pick the money up, and one
of them said, shaking his head —

" It is not money we want, but liberty of con-
science."

" My men," answered Lalande, " it is unfortu-
nately not in my power to grant your demand, but I
advise you to submit to the king's will and trust in
his clemency."

565

CELEBRATED CRIMES

" Sir," answered Cavalier, " we are all ready to
obey him, provided that he graciously grant us our
just demands; if not, we shall die weapon in hand,
rather than expose ourselves once more to such out-
rages as have already been inflicted on us."

" Your demands shall be transmitted word for
word to M. de Villars, who will lay them before the
king," said Lalande, " and you may be sure, sir,
that my most sincere wish is that His Majesty may
not find them exorbitant."

With these words, M. de Lalande saluted
Cavalier, and turned to rejoin his escort; but Cava-
lier, wishing to return confidence with confidence,
crossed the bridge with him, and accompanied the
general to where his soldiers had halted. There,
with another salute, the two chiefs parted, M. de
Lalande taking the road to Uzes, while Cavalier
rejoined his comrades.

Meantime d'Aygaliers, who, as we have seen, had
not left Uzes until the 5th May, in order to join
Cavalier, did not come up with him until the 13th —
that is to say, the day after his conference with
Lalande. D'Aygaliers gives us an account of their
interview, and we cannot do better than quote it.

" Although it was the first time that we had met
face to face, we embraced each other as if we were
old acquaintances. My little band mixed with his
and sang psalms together, while Cavalier and I

566

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

talked. I was very much pleased with what he said,
and convinced him without difficulty that he should
submit for the sake of the brethren, who could then
choose whichever course best suited them, and either
leave the kingdom or serve the king. I said that I
believed the last course to be the best, provided we
were allowed to worship God according to our con-
sciences; because I hoped that, seeing their faithful
service, His Majesty would recognise that he had
been imposed upon by those who had described us
as disloyal subjects, and that we should thus obtain
for the whole nation that liberty of conscience which
had been granted to us; that in no other way, as
far as I could see, could our deplorable condition be
ameliorated, for although Cavalier and his men
might be able to exist for some time longer in the
forests and mountains, they would never be strong
enough to save the inhabitants of towns and other
enclosed places from perishing.

" Upon this he replied, that although the Catho-
lics seldom kept a promise made to those of our
religion, he was willing to risk his life for the
welfare of his brethren and the province but that he
trusted if he confided in the clemency of the king
for whom he had never ceased to pray, no harm
would happen him."

Thereupon d'Aygaliers, delighted to find him so
well inclined, begged him to give him a letter for M.

567

CELEBRATED CRIMES

de Villars, and as Cavalier knew the marechal to be
loyal and zealous, and had great confidence in him,
he wrote without any hesitation the following
letter : —

" Monseigneur, — Permit me to address your
Excellency in order to beg humbly for the favour of
your protection for myself and for my soldiers. We
are filled with the most ardent desire to repair the
fault which we have committed by bearing arms,
not against the king, as our enemies have so falsely
asserted, but to defend our lives against those who
persecuted us, attacking us so fiercely that we
believed it was done by order of His Majesty. We
know that it was written by St. Paul that subjects
ought to submit themselves to their king, and if in
spite of these sincere protestations our sovereign
should still demand our blood, we shall soon be
ready to throw ourselves on his justice or his mercy;
but we should, Monseigneur, regard ourselves as
happy, if His Majesty, moved by our repentance,
would grant us his pardon and receive us into his
service, according to the example of the God of
mercy whose representative His Majesty is on earth.
We trust, Monseigneur, by our faithfulness and zeal
to acquire the honour of your protection, and we
glory in the thought of being permitted, under the
command of such an illustrious and noble-minded

568

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

general as yourself, to shed our blood for the king;
this being so, I hope that your Excellency will be
pleased to allow me to inscribe myself with profound
respect and humility, Monseigneur, your most
humble and obedient servant,

"Cavalier."

D'Aygaliers, as soon as he got possession of this
letter, set out for Nimes in the best of spirits; for
he felt sure that he was bringing M. de Villars
more than he had expected. And, indeed, as soon
as the marechal saw how far things had gone, in
spite of everything that Lalande could say, who in
his jealousy asserted that d'Aygaliers would spoil
everything, he sent him back to Cavalier with an
invitation to come to Nimes. D'Aygaliers set out
at once, promising to bring the young chief back
with him, at which Lalande laughed loudly, pretend-
ing to be very much amused at the baron's confident
way of speaking, and protesting that Cavalier would
not come.

In the meantime events were happening in the
mountains which might easily have changed the
state of mind of the young chief. The Comte de
Tournan, who was in command at Florae, had
encountered Roland's army in the plain of Fond-
mortes, and had lost two hundred men, a consid-
erable sum of money, and eighty mules loaded with

569

CELEBRATED CRIMES

provisions. The anxiety which this news caused to
M. de Villars was soon relieved; for six days after
the defeat he received a letter from Cavalier by the
hands of Lacombe, the same who had brought about
the interview on the bridge of Avenes. In this letter
Cavalier expressed the greatest regret for what had
just happened.

D'Aygaliers therefore found Cavalier in the best
of humours when he joined him at Tarnac. The first
feeling that the young chief felt on receiving the
invitation was one of stupefaction ; for an inter-
view with the marechal was an honour so unexpected
and so great, that his impression was that some
treason lay behind it ; but he was soon reassured
when he recalled the character for loyalty which the
marechal bore, and how impossible it was that
d'Aygaliers should lend himself to treachery. So
Cavalier sent back word that he would obey the
marechal's orders, and that he put himself entirely
into his hands in what concerned the arrangements
for the interview. M. de Villars let him know that
he would expect him on the 16th in the garden of
the convent of the Recollets of Nimes, which lay
just outside the city, between the gates of Beaucaire
and the Madeleine, and that Lalande would meet
him beyond Carayrac to receive him and to bring
him hostages.

57°

CHAPTER IV

ON the 15th May Cavalier set out from Tarnac
at the head of one hundred and sixty foot-
soldiers and fifty horse ; he was accompanied by his
young brother and by d'Aygaliers and Lacombe.
They all passed the night at Langlade.

The next day they set out for Nimes, and, as had
been agreed upon, were met by Lalande between
Saint-Cesaire and Carayrac. Lalande advanced to
greet Cavalier and present the hostages to him.
These hostages were M. de La Duretiere, captain
of the Fimarcpn regiment, a captain of infantry,
several other officers, and ten dragoons. Cavalier
passed them over to his lieutenant, Ravanel, who
was in command of the infantry, and left them in
his charge at Saint-Cesaire. The cavalry accom-
panied him to within a musket-shot of Nimes, and
encamped upon the heights. Besides this, Cavalier
posted sentinels and mounted orderlies at all the
approaches to the camp, and even as far off as the
fountain of Diana and the tennis-court. These pre-
cautions taken, he entered the city, accompanied by
his brother, d'Aygaliers, Lacombe, and a body-

571

CELEBRATED CRIMES

guard of eighteen cavalry, commanded by Catinat.

Lalande rode on before to announce their arrival
to the marechal, whom he found waiting with MM.
de Baville and Sandricourt, in the garden of the
Recollets, dreading every moment to receive word
that Cavalier had refused to come; for he expected
great results from this interview. Lalande, how-
ever, reassured him by telling him the young Hugue-
not was behind.

In a few minutes a great tumult was heard : it
was the people hastening to welcome their hero.
Not a Protestant, except paralytic old people and
infants in the cradle, remained indoors; for the
Huguenots, who had long looked on Cavalier as
their champion, now considered him their saviour,
so that men and women threw themselves under the
feet of his horse in their efforts to kiss the skirts
of his coat. It was more like a victor making his
entry into a conquered town than a rebel chief
coming to beg for an amnesty for himself and his
adherents. M. de Villars heard the outcry from the
garden of Recollets, and when he learned its cause
his esteem for Cavalier rose higher, for every day
since his arrival as governor had showed him more
and more clearly how great was the young chief's
influence. The tumult increased as Cavalier came
nearer, and it flashed through the marechal's mind
that instead of giving hostages he should have

572

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

claimed them. At this moment Cavalier appeared
at the gate, and seeing the marechal's guard drawn
up in line, he caused his own to form a line opposite
them. The memoirs of the time tell us that he
was dressed in a coffee-coloured coat, with a very
full white muslin cravat ; he wore a cross-belt from
which depended his sword, and on his head a gold-
laced hat of black felt. He was mounted on a
magnificent bay horse, the same which he had taken
from M. de La Jonquiere on the bloody day of
Vergenne.

The lieutenant of the guard met him at the gate.
Cavalier quickly dismounted, and throwing the
bridle of his horse to one of his men, he entered
the garden, and advanced towards the expectant
group, which was composed, as we have said, of
Villars, Baville, and Sandricourt. As he drew near,
M. de Villars regarded him with growing astonish-
ment; for he could not believe that in the young
man, or rather boy, before him he saw the terrible
Cevenol chief, whose name alone made the bravest
soldiers tremble. Cavalier at this period had just
completed his twenty-fourth year, but, thanks to
his fair hair which fell in long locks over his shoul-
ders, and to the gentle expression of his eyes, he did
not appear more than eighteen. Cavalier was
acquainted with none of the men in whose presence
he stood, but he noticed M. de Villars' rich dress

573

CELEBRATED CRIMES

and air of command. He therefore saluted him
first; afterwards, turning towards the others, he
bowed to each, but less profoundly, then somewhat
embarrassed and with downcast eyes he stood
motionless and silent. The marechal still continued
to look at him in silent astonishment, turning from
time to time to Baville and Sandricourt, as if to
assure himself that there was no mistake and that
it was really the man whom they expected who stood
before them. At last, doubting still, in spite of the
signs they made to reassure him, he asked —

" Are you really Jean Cavalier? "

" Yes, monseigneur," was the reply, given in an
unsteady voice.

" But I mean Jean Cavalier, the Camisard general,
he who has assumed the title of Duke of the
Cevennes."

" I have not assumed that title, monseigneur, only
some people call me so in joke: the king alone has
the right to confer titles, and I rejoice exceedingly,
monseigneur, that he has given you that of gov-
ernor of Languedoc."

" When you are speaking of the king, why do
you not say ' His Majesty ' ? " said M. de Baville.
" Upon my soul, the king is too good to treat thus
with a rebel."

The blood rushed to Cavalier's head, his face
tlamed, and after a moment's pause, fixing his eye

574

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

boldly upon M. de Baville, and speaking in a voice
which was now as firm as it had been tremulous a
moment before, he said, "If you have only brought
me here, sir, to speak to me in such a manner, you
might better have left me in my mountains, and
come there yourself to take a lesson in hospitality.
If I am a rebel, it is not I who am answerable, for
it was the tyranny and cruelty of M. de Baville
which forced us to have recourse to arms; and if
history takes exception to anything connected with
the great monarch for whose pardon I sue to-day,
it will be, I hope, not that he had foes like me, but
friends like him."

M. de Baville grew pale with anger ; for whether
Cavalier knew to whom he was speaking or not,
his words had the effect of a violent blow full in his
face; but before he could reply M. de Villars inter-
posed.

"Your business is only with me, sir," he said;
" attend to me alone, I beg : I speak in the name
of the king; and the king, of his clemency, wishes
to spare his subjects by treating them with tender-
ness."

Cavalier opened his mouth to reply, but the intend-
ant cut him short.

" I should hope that that suffices," he said
contemptuously : " as pardon is more than you
could have hoped for, I suppose you are not

575

Dumas — Vol. 2 — 6

CELEBRATED CRIMES

going to insist on the other conditions you laid
down?"

" But it is precisely those other conditions," said
Cavalier, addressing himself to M. de Villars, and
not seeming to see that anyone else was present,
" for which we have fought. If I were alone, sir,
I should give myself up, bound hand and foot, with
entire confidence in your good faith, demanding no
assurances and exacting no conditions; but I stand
here to defend the interests of my brethren and
friends who trust me ; and what is more, things have
gone so far that we must either die weapon in hand,
or obtain our rights."

The intendant was about to speak, but the
marechal stopped him with such an imperative ges-
ture that he stepped back as if to show that he
washed his hands of the whole matter.

" What are those rights ? Are they those which
M. Lalande has transmitted to me by word of
mouth ? "

" Yes, sir."

" It would be well to commit them to writing."

" I have done so, monseigneur, and sent a copy to
M. d'Aygaliers."

" I have not seen it, sir ; make me another copy
and place it in my hands, I beg."

" I shall go and set about it directly, monseig-
neur," stepping back as if about to withdraw.

576

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

" One moment ! " said the marechal, detaining him
by a smile. " Is it true that you are willing to enter
the king's army? "

" I am more than willing, I desire it with all my
heart," exclaimed Cavalier, with the frank enthusi-
asm natural to his age, " but I cannot do so till our
just demands are granted."

" But if they were granted ? "

" Then, sir," replied Cavalier, " the king has
never had more loyal subjects than we shall be."

" Well, have a little patience and everything will
be arranged, I hope."

" May God grant it ! " said Cavalier. " He is
my witness that we desire peace beyond everything."
And he took another step backwards.

" You will not go too far away, I hope," said the
marechal.

" We shall remain wherever your excellency may
appoint," said Cavalier.

" Very well," continued M. de Villars ; " halt at
Calvisson, and try all you can to induce the other
leaders to follow your example."

" I shall do my best, monseigneur ; but while we
await His Majesty's reply shall we be allowed to
fulfil our religious duties unimpeded ? "

" Yes, I shall give orders that you are to have f ul?
liberty in that respect."

" Thanks, monseigneur."

577

CELEBRATED CRIMES

Cavalier bowed once more, and was about to go ;
but M. de Villars accompanied him and Lalande,
who had now joined them, and who stood with his
hand on Cavalier's shoulder, a few steps farther.
Catinat seeing that the conference was at an end,
entered the garden with his men. Thereupon M.
de Villars took leave, saying distinctly, " Adieu,
Seigneur Cavalier," and withdrew, leaving the
young chief surrounded by a dozen persons all want-
ing to speak to him at once. For half an hour he
was detained by questions, to all of which he replied
pleasantly. On one finger was an emerald taken
from a naval officer named Didier, whom he had
killed with his own hand in the action at Devois
de Martignargues ; he kept time by a superb watch
which had belonged to M. d'Acqueville, the second
in command of the marines ; and he offered his
questioners from time to time perfumed snuff from
a magnificent snuffbox, which he had found in the
holsters when he took possession of M. de La Jon-
quiere's horse. He told everyone who wished to
listen that he had never intended to revolt against
the king, and that he was now ready to shed the last
drop of his blood in his service ; that he had several
times offered to surrender on condition that liberty
of conscience was granted to those of the new faith,
but that M. de Montrevel had always rejected his
offers, so that he had been obliged to remain under

578

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

arms, in order to deliver those who were in prison,
and to gain permission for those who were free to
worship God in their own way.

He said these things in an unembarrassed and
graceful manner, hat in hand ; then passing through
the crowd which had gathered outside the garden of
the Recollets, he repaired to the Hotel de la Poste
for lunch, and afterwards walked along the Espla-
nade to the house of one Guy Billard, a gardener,
who was his head prophet's father. As he thus
moved about he was preceded by two Camisards
with drawn swords, who made way for him; and
several ladies were presented to him who were happy
to touch his doublet. The visit over, he once again
passed along the Esplanade, still preceded by his two
Camisards, and just as he passed the Little Convent
he and those with him struck up a psalm tune, and
continued singing till they reached Saint-Cesaire,
where the hostages were. These he at once sent
back.

Five hundred persons from Nimes were awaiting
him; refreshments were offered to him, which he
accepted gratefully, thanking all those who had
gathered together to meet him. At last he went off to
St. Denoise, where he was to sup and sleep; but
before going to bed he offered up supplications in
a loud voice for the king, for M. de Villars, for M
de Lalande, and even for M. de Baville.

579

CELEBRATED CRIMES

The next morning, Cavalier, according to prom-
ise, sent a copy of his demands to M. de Villars, who
caused it to be laid before the king, along with a
full report of all that had passed at the interview
at Nimes. As soon as the young chief had sent off
his missive, he rejoined his troops at Tarnac, and
related all that had passed to Roland, urging him
to follow his example. That night he slept at
Sauves, having passed through Durfort at the head
of his men; a captain of dragoons named Montgros,
with twenty-five soldiers, accompanying him every-
where, by M. de Villars' orders, and seeing that the
villages through which they passed furnished him
with all that was needed. They left Sauves on May
1 6th very early in the morning, in order to get to
Calvisson, which, as our readers may remember, was
the place appointed for the residence of Cavalier
during the truce. In passing through Quissac,
where they stopped for refreshments, they were
joined by Castanet, who delivered a long sermon,
at which all the Protestants of the neighbourhood
were present.

The two battalions of the Charolais regiment
which were quartered at Calvisson had received
orders on the evening of the 17th to march out next
morning, so as to make room for the Camisards.

On the 18th the head of the commissary depart-
ment, Vincel, ordered suitable accommodation to be

580

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

provided for Cavalier and his troops; the muster
roll being in the hands of M. d'Aygaliers, it would
be sent by him or brought in the course of the day.
In the meantime, vans were arriving filled with all
sorts of provisions, followed by droves of cattle,
while a commissary and several clerks, charged
with the distribution of rations, brought up the
rear.

On the 19th, Catinat, accompanied by twelve
Camisards, rode into the town, and was met at the
barrier by the commandant and eighty townspeople.
As soon as the little band came in sight the com-
mandant reiterated his orders that nothing should
be said or done in the town, on pain of corporal
punishment, that could offend the Camisards.

At one o'clock p. m. Baron d'Aygaliers arrived,
followed in his turn by the chief of the commissariat,
Vincel, by Captain Cappon, two other officers named
Viala and Despuech, and six dragoons. These were
the hostages Cavalier had given.

At six o'clock there was heard a great noise ; and
shouts of "Cavalier! Cavalier!" resounded on all
sides. The young Cevenol was in sight, and the
whole population hastened to meet him. He rode
at the head of his cavalry, the infantry following,
and the whole number — about six hundred men —
sang psalms in a loud voice.

When they reached the church, Cavalier drew up
58i

CELEBRATED CRIMES

before it with all his men in review order, and for
some time the singing went on. When it stopped,
a long prayer was offered up, which was most edify-
ing to all the bystanders; and this being over,
Cavalier went to the quarters assigned him, which
were in the best house in Calvisson. Arrived there,
he sent out for a dozen loaves that he might judge
how his men were going to be fed ; not finding them
white enough, he complained to M. Vincel, whom
he sent for, and who promised that in future the
bread should be of a better quality. Having received
this assurance, Cavalier gave orders that the loaves
in hand should be distributed for that day, but
probably fearing poison, he first made M. de Vincel
and his clerks taste them in his presence. These
duties accomplished, he visited in person all the
gates of the town, placed guards and posted sentinels
at all the entrances and along all the avenues, the
most advanced being three-quarters of a league
from the town. Besides this, he placed guards in
the streets, and a sentinel at each door of the house
he occupied ; in addition, thirty guards always slept
outside the door of his bedroom, and these accom-
panied him as an escort when he went out ; not that
he was afraid, for he was not of a mistrustful char-
acter, but that he thought it politic to give people an
exalted idea of his importance. As to his soldiers,
they were billeted on the inhabitants, and received

582

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

each as daily rations a pound of meat, a quart of
wine, and two and a half pounds of bread.

The same day a convocation was held on the site
of the old meeting-house which had been destroyed
by the Catholics. It was a very numerous assembly,
to which crowds of people came from all parts;
but on the following days it was still more numer-
ous ; for, as the news spread, people ran with great
eagerness to hear the preaching of the word of
which they had been so long deprived. D'Aygaliers
tells us in his Memoirs that — " No one could help
being touched to see a whole people just escaped
from fire and sword, coming together in multitudes
to mingle their tears and sighs. So famished were
they for the manna divine, that they were like people
coming out of a besieged city, after a long and
cruel famine, to whom peace has brought food in
abundance, and who, first devouring it with their
eyes, then throw themselves on it, devouring it
bodily — meat, bread, and fruit — as it comes to
hand. So it was with the unfortunate inhabitants
of La Vannage, and even of places more distant still.
They saw their brethren assembling in the meadows
and at the gates of Calvisson, gathering in crowds
and pressing round anyone who started singing a
psalm, until at last four or five thousand persons,
singing, weeping, and praying, were gathered to-
gether, and remained there all day, supplicating God

583

CELEBRATED CRIMES

with a devotion that went to every heart and made a
deep impression. All night the same things went
on ; nothing was to be heard but preaching, singing,
praying, and prophesying."

But if it was a time of joy for the Protestants,
it was a time of humiliation for the Catholics.
" Certainly," says a contemporary historian, " it
was a very surprising thing, and quite a novelty, to
see in a province like Languedoc, where so many
troops were quartered, such a large number of
villains — all murderers, incendiaries, and guilty of
sacrilege — gathered together in one place by per-
mission of those in command of the troops ; tolerated
in their eccentricities, fed at the public expense,
flattered by everyone, and courteously received by
people sent specially to meet them."

One of those who was most indignant at this state
of things was M. de Baville. He was so eager to
put an end to it that he went to see the governor,
and told him the scandal was becoming too great in
his opinion : the assemblies ought to be put an end
to by allowing the troops to fall upon them and
disperse them ; but the governor thought quite other-
wise, and told Baville that to act according to his
advice would be to set fire to the province again and
to scatter for ever people whom they had got
together with such difficulty. In any case, he
reminded Baville that what he objected to would

584

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

be over in a few days. His opinion was that de
Baville might stifle the expression of his dissatis-
faction for a little, to bring about a great good.
" More than that," added the marechal, " the im-
patience of the priests is most ridiculous. Besides
your remonstrances, of which I hope I have now
heard the last, I have received numberless letters full
of such complaints that it would seem as if the
prayers of the Camisards not only grated on the
ears of the clergy but flayed them alive. I should
like above everything to find out the writers of these
letters, in order to have them flogged ; but they have
taken good care to put no signatures. I regard it as
a very great impertinence for those who caused
these disturbances to grumble and express their
disapproval at my efforts to bring them to an end."

After this speech, M. de Baville saw there was
nothing for him to do but to let things take their
course.

The course that they took turned Cavalier's head
more and more; for, thanks to the injunctions of M.
de Villars, all the orders that Cavalier gave were
obeyed as if they had been issued by the governor
himself. He had a court like a prince, lieutenants
like a general, and secretaries like a statesman. It
was the duty of one secretary to give leave of
absence to those Camisards who had business to
attend to or who desired to visit their relations. The

585

CELEBRATED CRIMES

following is a copy of the form used for these pass-
ports : —

" We, the undersigned, secretary to Brother Cav-
alier, generalissimo of the Huguenots, permit by

this order given by him to to absent himself

on business for three days.

"(Signed) Dupont.

" Calvisson, this "

And these safe-conducts were as much respected
as if they had been signed "Marechal de Villars."

On the 22nd M. de Saint-Pierre arrived from the
court, bringing the reply of the king to the proposals
which Cavalier had submitted to M. de Lalande.
What this reply was did not transpire ; probably it
was not in harmony with the pacific intentions of
the marechal. At last, on the 25th, the answer to
the demands which Cavalier had made to M. de
Villars himself arrived. The original paper written
by the Camisard chief himself had been sent to
Louis xiv, and he returned it with notes in his own
writing; thus these two hands, to one of which
belonged the shepherd's crook and to the other the
sceptre, had rested on the same sheet of paper. The
following is the text of the agreement as given by
Cavalier in his Memoirs: —

586

massacres of the south

" The Humble Petition of the Reformers of
Languedoc to the King

"i. That it may please the king to grant us liberty
of conscience throughout the province, and to permit
us to hold religious meetings in every suitable place,
except fortified places and walled cities.

Granted, on condition that no churches be built.

"2. That all those in prison or at the galleys who
have been sent there since the revocation of the
Edict of Nantes, because of their religion, be set
at liberty within six weeks from the date of this
petition.

Granted.

"3. That all those who have left the kingdom
because of their religion be allowed to return in
freedom and safety, and that their goods and privi-
leges be restored to them.

Granted on condition that they take the oath of
fidelity to the king.

" 4. That the Parliament of Languedoc be re-
established on its ancient footing, and with all its
former privileges.

The king reserves decision on this point.
5*7

CELEBRATED CRIMES

" 5. That the province of Languedoc be exempted
from the poll tax for ten years, this to apply to
Catholics and Protestants alike, both sides having
equally suffered.

Refused.

" 6. That the cities of Perpignan, Montpellier,
Cette, and Aiguemortes be assigned us as cities of
refuge.

Refused.

" 7. That the inhabitants of the Cevennes whose
houses were burnt or otherwise destroyed during
the war be exempt from taxes for seven years.

Granted.

"8. That it may please His Majesty to permit
Cavalier to choose 2000 men, both from among his
own troops and from among those who may be
delivered from the prisons and galleys, to form a
regiment of dragoons for the service of His
Majesty, and that this regiment when formed may
at once be ordered to serve His Majesty in Portugal.

Granted: and on condition that all the Hugue-
nots everywhere lay dozen their anus, the
king will permit them to lire quietly in the
free exercise of their religion."
' 588

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

" I had been a week at Calvisson," says Cavalier
in his Memoirs, " when I received a letter from M.
le Marechal de Villars ordering me to repair to
Nimes, as he wished to see me, the answer to my
demands having arrived. I obeyed at once, and was
very much displeased to find that several of my
demands, and in particular the one relating to the
cities of refuge, had been refused; but M. le mare-
chal assured me that the king's word was better
than twenty cities of refuge, and that after all the
trouble we had given him we should regard it as
showing great clemency on his part that he had
granted us the greater part of what we had asked.
This reasoning was not entirely convincing, but as
there was no more time for deliberation, and as I
was as anxious for peace as the king himself, I
decided to accept gracefully what was offered."

All the further advantage that Cavalier could
obtain from M. de Villars was that the treaty should
bear the date of the day on which it had been drawn
up ; in this manner the prisoners who were to be set
at liberty in six weeks gained one week.

M. de Villars wrote at the bottom of the treaty,
which was signed the same day by him and M. de
Baville on the part of the king, and by Cavalier
and Daniel Billard on the part of the Protestants,
the following ratification : —

58Q

CELEBRATED CRIMES

" In virtue of the plenary powers which we have
received from the king, we have granted to the
Reformers of Languedoc the articles above made
known.

" Marechal de Villars J. Cavalier

" Lamoignon de Baville Daniel Billard

" Given at Nimes, the 17th of May 1704 "

These two signatures, all unworthy as they were
to stand beside their own, gave such great delight
to MM. de Villars and de Baville, that they at once
sent off fresh orders to Calvisson that the wants
of the Camisards should be abundantly supplied
until the articles of the treaty were executed — that
is to say, until the prisoners and the galley slaves
were set at liberty, which, according to article 2 of
the treaty, would be within the next six weeks. As
to Cavalier, the marechal gave him on the spot a
commission as colonel, with a pension of 1200
livres attached, and the power of nominating the
subordinate officers in his regiment, and at the same
time he handed him a captain's commission for his
young brother.

Cavalier drew up the muster-roll of the regiment
the same day, and gave it to the marechal. It was
to consist of seven hundred and twelve men, form-
ing fifteen companies, with sixteen captains, sixteen
lieutenants, a sergeant-major, and a surgeon-major.

S90

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

While all this was happening-, Roland, taking
advantage of the suspension of hostilities, was
riding up and down the province as if he were
viceroy of the Cevennes, and wherever he appeared
he had a magnificent reception. Like Cavalier, he
gave leave of absence and furnished escorts, and
held himself haughtily, sure that he too would soon
be negotiating treaties on terms of equality with
marshals of France and governors of provinces.
But Roland was much mistaken: M. de Villars
had made great concessions to the popularity of
Cavalier, but they were the last he intended to make.
So, instead of being in his turn summoned to
Nimes, or Uzes, to confer with M. de Villars,
Roland merely received an intimation from Cavalier
that he desired to speak with him on important
business.

They met near Anduze, and Cavalier, faithful to
the promise given to M. de Villars, neglected no
argument that he could think of to induce Roland
to follow his example; but Roland would listen to
nothing. Then, when Cavalier saw that arguments
and promises were of no avail, he raised his voice
in anger; but Roland, laying his hand on his shoul-
der, told him that his head was turned, that he
should remember that he, Roland, was his senior
in command, and therefore bound by nothing that
had been promised in his name by his junior, and

59i

CELEBRATED CRIMES

that he had registered a vow in Heaven that nothing
would persuade him to make peace unless complete
liberty of conscience were granted to all. The
young Cevenol, who was unaccustomed to such
language, laid his hand on the hilt of his sword,
Roland, stepping back, drew his, and the consulta-
tion would have ended in a duel if the prophets had
not thrown themselves between them, and succeeded
in getting Roland to consent to one of their number,
a man much esteemed among the Huguenots, named
Salomon, going back to Nimes with Cavalier to
learn from M. de Villars' own mouth what the exact
terms were which Cavalier had accepted and now
offered to Roland.

In a couple of hours Cavalier and Salomon set
out together, and arrived at Nimes on the 27th May,
escorted by twenty-five men ; they halted at the tower
of Magne, and the Protestants of the city came out
to meet them, bringing refreshments ; then, after
prayers and a hasty meal, they advanced to the
barracks and crossed the courtyards. The concourse
of people and the enthusiasm was no whit less than
on Cavalier's first entry, more than three hundred
persons kissing his hands and knees. Cavalier was
dressed on this occasion in a doublet of grey cloth,
and a beaver hat, laced with gold, and adorned with
a white feather.

Cavalier and his travelling-companion went direct
592

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

to the garden of the Recollets, and hardly had they
got there than MM. de Villars and de Baville,
accompanied by Lalande and Sandricourt, came out
to meet them : the conference lasted three hours,
but all that could be learned of the result was that
Salomon had declared that his brethren would never
lay down their arms till full liberty of conscience
had been secured to them. In consequence of this
declaration, it was decided that Cavalier and his
regiment should be despatched to Spain without
delay, in order to weaken the Calvinist forces to
that extent; meantime Salomon was sent back to
Roland with a positive promise that if he would
surrender, as Cavalier had done, he would be
granted the same conditions — that is to say, receive
a commission as colonel, have the right to name the
officers of his regiment, and receive a pension of
1200 livres. On quitting the garden of the Recollets,
Cavalier found as great a crowd as ever waiting for
him, and so closely did they press on him that two
of his men were obliged to ride before him with
drawn sabres to clear a way for him till the Mont-
pellier road was reached. He lay that night at
Langlade, in order to rejoin his troops early next
morning.

But during his absence things had happened
among these men, who had hitherto obeyed him
blindly, which he little expected. He had left, as

593

CELEBRATED CRIMES

usual, Ravanel in command ; but hardly had he
ridden away when Ravanel began to take all kinds
of precautions, ordering the men not to lay aside
their arms. The negotiations with M. de Villars
had made him most anxious ; he looked upon all the
promises given as snares, and he regarded the
compromise favoured by his chief as a defection on
Cavalier's part. He therefore called all the officers
and men together, told them of his fears, and ended
by imbuing them with his suspicions. This was all
the more easily done, as it was very well known that
Cavalier had joined the Huguenots less from devo-
tion to the cause than to avenge a private wrong, and
on many occasions had given rise to the remark
that he had more genius than religion.

So, on getting back to Calvisson, the young chief
found his principal officers, Ravanel at their head,
drawn up in the market-place, waiting for him. As
soon as he drew near they told him that they were
determined to know at once what were the condi-
tions of the treaty he had signed with the marechal;
they had made up their minds to have a plain
answer without delay. Such a way of speaking to
him was so strange and unexpected, that Cavalier
shrugged his shoulders and replied that such matters
were no business of theirs, being too high for their
intelligence ; that it was his business to decide what
course to take and theirs to take it; it had always

594

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

been so in the past, and with the help of God and
his own, Cavalier's, goodwill, it should still be so
in future; and having so spoken, he told them to
disperse. Ravanel upon this came forward, and in
the name of all the others said they would not go
away until they knew what orders Cavalier was
about to give the troops, that they might consult
among themselves whether they should obey them
or not. This insubordination was too much for
Cavalier's patience.

" The orders are," he said, " to put on the uni-
forms that are being made for you, and to follow me
to Portugal."

The effect of such words on men who were
expecting nothing less than the re-enactment of the
Edict of Nantes, can be easily imagined; the words
" coward " and " traitor " could be distinguished
above the murmurs, as Cavalier noticed with in-
creasing astonishment. Raising himself in his
stirrups, and glancing round with that look before
which they had been used to tremble, he asked in a
voice as calm as if all the demons of anger were
not raging in his heart, " Who called Jean Cavalier
traitor and coward?"

" I," said Ravanel, crossing his arms on his breast.

Cavalier drew a pistol from his holsters, and
striking those near him with the butt end, opened
a way towards his lieutenant, who drew his sword;

595

CELEBRATED CRIMES

but at this moment the commissary-general, Vincel,
and Captain Cappon threw themselves between the
two and asked the cause of the quarrel.

" The cause," said Ravanel, " is that the Cadets
of the Cross, led by the ' Hermit,' have just knocked
out the brains of two of our brethren, who were
coming to join us, and are hindering others from
attending our meetings to worship God : the condi-
tions of the truce having been thus broken, is it
likely they will keep those of the treaty? We refuse
to accept the treaty."

" Sir," said Vincel, " if the ' Hermit ' has done
what you say, it is against the orders of the mare-
chal, and the misdoer will be punished; besides, the
large number of strangers at present in Calvisson
ought to be sufficient proof that no attempt has been
made to prevent the new converts from coming to
the town, and it seems to me that you have been
too easily led to believe everything that malicious
people have told you."

" I believe what I choose to believe," said Ravanel
impatiently ; " but what I know and say is, that I
shall never lay down arms till the king grants us
full liberty of conscience, permission to rebuild our
places of worship, and sends us back all prisoners
and exiles."

" But, judging by your tone," said Cavalier, who
had till now remained silent while toying with his

596

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

pistol, " you seem to be in command here ; have we
changed parts without my being aware ? "

" It is possible," said Ravanel.

Cavalier burst out laughing.

" It seems to astonish you," said Ravanel, " but it
is true. Make peace for yourself, lay down what
conditions suit you, sell yourself for whatever you
will bring ; my only reply is, You are a coward and a
traitor. But as to the troops, they will not lay down
arms except on the conditions formulated by me."

Cavalier tried to get at Ravanel, but seeing from
his paleness and his smile that terrible things would
happen if he reached his lieutenant, Vincel and
Cappon, backed by some Camisards, threw them-
selves before his horse. Just then the whole band
shouted with one voice, " No peace ! no peace ! no
reconciliation till our temples are restored ! " Cav-
alier then saw for the first time that things were
more serious than he had believed, but Vincel,
Cappon, Berlie, and about twenty Camisards sur-
rounded the young chief and forced him to enter a
house; it was the house of Vincel.

They had hardly got indoors when the generate
was sounded : resisting all entreaties, Cavalier
sprang to the door, but was detained by Berlie, who
said that the first thing he ought to do was to write
M. de Villars an account of what had happened, who
would then take measures to put things straight.

597

CELEBRATED CRIMES

"You are right," said Cavalier; "as I have so
many enemies, the general might be told if I were
killed that I had broken my word. Give me pen
and ink."

Writing materials were brought, and he wrote to
M. de Villars.

" Here," he said, giving the letter unsealed to
Vincel, " set out for Nimes and give this to the
marechal, and tell him, if I am killed in the
attempt I am about to make, I died his humble
servant."

With these words, he darted out of the house and
mounted his horse, being met at the door by twelve
to fifteen men who had remained faithful to him.
He asked them where Ravanel and his troops were,
not seeing a single Camisard in the streets; one of
the soldiers answered that they were probably still
in town, but that they were moving towards Les
Garrigues de Calvisson. Cavalier set off at a gallop
to overtake them.

In crossing the market-place he met Catinat,
walking between two prophets, one called Moses
and the other Daniel Guy ; Catinat was just back
from a visit to the mountains, so that he had taken
no part in the scene of insubordination that had so
lately been enacted.

Cavalier felt a ray of hope ; he was sure he could
depend on Catinat as on himself. He hurried to

598

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

greet him, holding out his hand ; but Catinat drew
back his.

"What does this mean?" cried Cavalier, the
blood mounting to his forehead.

" It means," answered Catinat, " that you
are a traitor, and I cannot give my hand to a
traitor."

Cavalier gave a cry of rage, and advancing on
Catinat, raised his cane to strike him ; but Moses and
Daniel Guy threw themselves between, so that the
blow aimed at Catinat fell on Moses. At the same
moment Catinat, seeing Cavalier's gesture, drew a
pistol from his belt. As it was at full cock, it went
off in his hand, a bullet piercing Guy's hat, without,
however, wounding him.

At the noise of the report shouts were heard about
a hundred yards away. It was the Camisards, who
had been on the point of leaving the town, but hear-
ing the shot had turned back, believing that some of
their brethren were being murdered. On seeing
them appear, Cavalier forgot Catinat, and rode
straight towards them. As soon as they caught
sight of him they halted, and Ravanel advanced
before them, ready for every danger.

" Brethren," he cried, " the traitor has come once
more to tempt us. Begone, Judas! You have no
business here."

"But I have," exclaimed Cavalier. "I have to

599

CELEBRATED CRIMES

punish a scoundrel called Ravanel, if he has courage
to follow me."

"Come on, then," cried Ravanel, darting down a
small side-street, "and let us have done with it."
The Camisards made a motion as if to follow them,
but Ravanel turning towards them ordered them to
remain where they were.

They obeyed, and thus Cavalier could see that,
insubordinate as they had been towards him, they
were ready to obey another.

Just at the moment as he turned into the narrow
street where the dispute was to be settled once for
all, Moses and Guy came up, and seizing the bridle
of his horse stopped him, while the Camisards who
were on the side of Cavalier surrounded Ravanel
and forced him to return to his soldiers. The troops
struck up a psalm, and resumed their march, while
Cavalier was held back by force.

At last, however, the young Cevenol succeeded in
breaking away from those who surrounded him, and
as the street by which the Camisards had retired
was blocked, he dashed down another. The two
prophets suspecting his intention, hurried after the
troops by the most direct route, and got up with
them, just as Cavalier, who had made the circuit of
the town, came galloping across the plain to intercept
their passage. The troops halted, and Ravanel gave
orders to fire. The first rank raised their muskets

600

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

and took aim, thus indicating that they were
ready to obey. But it was not a danger of this kind
that could frighten Cavalier; he continued to ad-
vance. Then Moses seeing his peril, threw himself
between the Camisards and him, stretching out his
arms and shouting, " Stop ! stop ! misguided men !
Are you going to kill Brother Cavalier like a high-
wayman and thief? You must pardon him,
my brethren! you must pardon him! If he has
done wrong in the past, he will do better in
future."

Then those who had taken aim at Cavalier
grounded their muskets, and Cavalier changing men-
ace for entreaty, begged them not to break the
promise that he had made in their name ; whereupon
the prophets struck up a psalm, and the rest of the
soldiers joining in, his voice was completely
drowned. Nevertheless, Cavalier did not lose heart,
but accompanied them on their march to Saint-
Esteve, about a league farther on, unable to relin-
quish all hope. On reaching Saint-Esteve the sing-
ing ceased for a moment, and he made another
attempt to recall them to obedience. Seeing, how-
ever, that it was all in vain, he gave up hope, and
calling out, "At least defend yourselves as well as
you can, for the dragoons will soon be on you," he
set his horse's head towards the town. Then turn-
ing to them for the last time, he said, " Brethren, let

60 1

CELEBRATED CRIMES

those who love me follow me! ': He pronounced
these words in tones so full of grief and affection
that many were shaken in their resolution ; but
Ravanel and Moses seeing the effect he had pro-
duced, began to shout, " The sword of the Lord ! "
Immediately all the troops turned their back on
Cavalier except about forty men who had joined
him on his first appearance.

Cavalier went into a house near by, and wrote
another letter to M. de Villars, in which he told him
what had just taken place, the efforts he had made
to win back his troops, and the conditions they
demanded. He ended by assuring him that he would
make still further efforts, and promised the marechal
that he would keep him informed of everything that
went on. He then withdrew to Cardet, not ventur-
ing to return to Calvisson.

Both Cavalier's letters reached M. de Villars at
the same time; in the first impulse of anger aroused
by this unexpected check, he issued the following
order : —

" Since coming to this province and taking over
the government by order of the king, our sole
thought has been how to put an end to the disorders
we found existing here by gentle measures, and to
restore peace and to preserve the property of those
who had taken no part in the disturbances. To that

602

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

end we obtained His Majesty's pardon for those
rebels who had, by the persuasion of their chiefs,
been induced to lay down their arms; the only con-
dition exacted being that they should throw them-
selves on the king's clemency and beg his permission
to expiate their crime by adventuring their lives in
his service. But, being informed that instead of
keeping the engagements they had made by signing
petitions, by writing letters, and by speaking words
expressing their intentions, some among them have
been trying to delude the minds of the people with
false hopes of full liberty for the exercise of this
so-called Reformed religion, which there has never
been any intention of granting, but which we have
always declared as clearly as we could, to be con-
trary to the will of the king and likely to bring about
great evils for which it would be difficult to find a
remedy, it becomes necessary to prevent those who
give belief to these falsehoods from expecting
to escape from well-deserved chastisement. We
therefore declare hereby that all religious assemblies
are expressly forbidden under the penalties pro-
claimed in the edicts and ordinances of His Majesty,
and that these will be more strictly enforced in the
future than in the past.

"Furthermore, we order all the troops under our
command to break up such assemblies by force, as
having been always illegal, and we desire to impress

603

CELEBRATED CRIMES

on the new converts of this province that they are
to give their obedience where it is due, and we for-
bid them to give any credence to the false reports
which the enemies of their repose are spreading
abroad. If they let themselves be led astray, they
will soon find themselves involved in troubles and
misfortunes, such as the loss of their lands, the ruin
of their families, and the desolation of their coun-
try; and we shall take care that the true authors of
these misfortunes shall receive punishment propor-
tioned to their crime.

" Marechal de Villars

" Given at Nimes the 27th day of May 1704 "

This order, which put everything back upon the
footing on which it had been in the time of M. de
Montrevel, had hardly been issued than d'Aygaliers,
in despair at seeing the result of so much labour
destroyed in one day, set off for the mountains to
try and find Cavalier. He found him at Cardet,
whither, as we have said, he had retired after the
day of Calvisson. Despite the resolution which
Cavalier had taken never to show his face again to
the marechal, the baron repeated to him so many
times that M. de Villars was thoroughly convinced
that what had happened had not been his fault, he
having done everything that he could to prevent it,

604

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

that the young chief began to feel his self-confidence
and courage returning, and hearing that the mare-
chal had expressed himself as very much pleased
with his conduct, to which Vincel had borne high
testimony, made up his mind to return to Nimes.
They left Cardet at once, followed by the forty men
who had remained true to Cavalier, ten on horse and
thirty on foot, and arrived on the 31st May at Saint-
Genies, whither M. de Villars had come to meet
them.

The assurances of d'Aygaliers were justified.
The marechal received Cavalier as if he were still the
chief of a powerful party and able to negotiate with
him on terms of equality. At Cavalier's request, in
order to prove to him that he stood as high in his
good opinion as ever, the marechal returned once
more to gentle methods, and mitigated the severity
of his first proclamation by a second, granting an
extension of the amnesty: —

"The principal chiefs of the rebels, with the
greater number of their followers, having surren-
dered, and having received the king's pardon, we
declare that we give to all those who have taken up
arms until next Thursday, the 5th instant inclusive,
the opportunity of receiving the like pardon, by sur-
rendering to us at Anduze, or to M. le Marquis de
Lalande at Alais, or to M. de Menon at Saint-

605

CELEBRATED CRIMES

Hippolyte, or to the commandants of Uzes, Nimes,
and Lunel. But the fifth day passed, we shall lay
a heavy hand on all rebels, pillaging and burning
all the places which have given them refuge, pro-
visions, or help of any kind; and that they may not
plead ignorance of this proclamation, we order it
to be publicly read and posted up in every suitable
place.

" Marechal de Villars

"At Saint-Genies, the ist June 1704 "

The next day, in order to leave no doubt as to his
good intentions, the marechal had the gibbets and
scaffolds taken down, which until then had been
permanent erections.

At the same time all the Huguenots were ordered
to make a last effort to induce the Camisard chiefs
to accept the conditions offered them by M. de Vil-
lars. The towns of Alais, Anduze, Saint-Jean,
Sauve, Saint-Hippolyte, and Lasalle, and the par-
ishes of Cros, Saint-Roman, Manoblet, Saint-Felix,
Lacadiere, Cesas, Cambo, Colognac, and Vabre were
ordered to send deputies to Durfort to confer as to
the best means of bringing about that peace which
everyone desired. These deputies wrote at once to
M. de Villars to beg him to send them M. d'Ayga-
liers, and to M. d'Aygaliers to request him to come.

606

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

Both consented to do as they were asked, and M.
d'Aygaliers arrived at Durfort on the 3rd of June
1704.

The deputies having first thanked him for the
trouble which he had taken to serve the common
cause during the past year, resolved to divide their
assembly into two parts, one of which was to remain
permanently sitting, while the other went to seek
Roland and Ravanel to try and obtain a cessation
of hostilities. The deputies charged with this task
were ordered to make it quite clear to the two chiefs
that if they did not accept the proposals made by
M. de Villars, the Protestants in general would take
up arms and hunt them down, and would cease to
supply them with the means of subsistence.

On hearing this, Roland made reply that the
deputies were to go back at once to those who sent
them, and threatened, should they ever show him
their faces again, to fire on them.

This answer put an end to the assembly, the
deputies dispersed, and d'Aygaliers returned to the
Marechal de Villars to make his report.

Hardly had he done this when a letter from Ro-
land arrived, in which the Camisard chief asked M.
de Villars to grant him an interview, such as he had
granted to Cavalier. This letter was addressed to
d'Aygaliers, who immediately communicated its con-
tents to the marechal, from whom he received orders

607

Dumas— Vol. 2—7

CELEBRATED CRIMES

to set out at once to find Roland and to spare no
pains to bring him round.

D'Aygaliers, who was always indefatigable when
working for his country, started the same day, and
went to a mountain about three-quarters of a league
from Anduze, where Roland awaited him. After a
conference of two hours, it was agreed that hostages
should be exchanged and negotiations entered upon.

Consequently, M. de Villars on his side sent Ro-
land M. de Montrevel, an officer commanding a
battalion of marines, and M. de la Maison-Blanche,
captain of the Froulay regiment; while Roland in
return sent M. de Villars four of his principal offi-
cers with the title of plenipotentiaries.

Unskilled in diplomacy as these envoys were, and
laughable as they appeared to contemporary histo-
rians, they received nevertheless the marechal's con-
sent to the following conditions : —

i. That Cavalier and Roland should each be
placed in charge of a regiment serving abroad, and
that each of them should be allowed a minister.

2. That all the prisoners should be released and
the exiles recalled.

3. That the Protestants should be permitted to
leave the kingdom, taking their effects with them.

4. That those Camisards who desired to remain
might do so, on giving up their arms.

608

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

5. That those who were abroad might return.

6. That no one should be molested on account of
his religion provided everyone remained quietly at
home.

7. That indemnities should be borne by the
whole province, and not exacted specially from the
Protestants.

8. That a general amnesty should be granted to
all without reserve.

These articles were laid before Roland and Rava-
nel by d'Aygaliers. Cavalier, who from the day he
went back to Nimes had remained in the governor's
suite, asked leave to return with the baron, and
was permitted to do so. D'Aygaliers and he
set out together in consequence for Anduze, and
met Roland and Ravanel about a quarter of a
league from the town, waiting to know the result
of the negotiations. They were accompanied by
MM. de Montbel and de Maison-Blanche, the Cath-
olic hostages.

As soon as Cavalier and Roland met they burst
out into recriminations and reproaches, but through
the efforts of d'Aygaliers they soon became more
friendly, and even embraced on parting.

But Ravanel was made of harder stuff: as soon
as he caught sight of Cavalier he called him "trai-
tor/' saying that for his part he would never sur-

609

CELEBRATED CRIMES

render till the Edict of Nantes was re-enacted ; then,
having warned them that the governor's promises
were not to be trusted, and having predicted that
a day would come when they would regret their too
great confidence in him, he left the conference and
rejoined his troops, which, with those of Roland,
were drawn up on a mountain about three-quarters
of a league distant.

The negotiators did not, however, despair. Rava-
nel had gone away, but Roland had debated with
them at some length, so they determined to speak to
" the brethren " — that is, to the troops under Roland
and Ravanel, whose headquarters at the moment
were at Leuzies, in order that they might know
exactly what articles had been agreed on between
Roland's envoys and the marechal. Those who
made up their minds to take this step were, Cavalier,
Roland, Moise, Saint-Paul, Laforet, Maille, and
d'Aygaliers. We take the following account of
what happened in consequence of this decision from
d'Aygaliers' Memoirs : —

"We had nc sooner determined on this plan,
than, anxious to carry it out, we set off. We
followed a narrow mountain path on the face of
the cliff which rose up to our right ; to our left
flowed the Gardon.

"Having gone about a league, we came in sight
610

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

of the troops, about 3000 strong; an advanced post
barred our way.

"Thinking it was placed there in our honour, I
was advancing unsuspiciously, when suddenly we
found our road cut off by Camisards to right and
left, who threw themselves on Roland and forced
him in among their troops. Maille and Malplach
were dragged from their horses. As to Cavalier,
who was somewhat behind, as soon as he saw people
coming towards him with uplifted sabres and shout-
ing ' Traitor ! ' he put spurs to his horse and went
off at full gallop, followed by some townspeople
from Anduze who had come with us, and who, now
that they saw the reception we met with, were ready
to die with fear.

" I was too far forward to escape : five or six mus-
kets rested on my breast and a pistol pressed each
ear; so I made up my mind to be bold. I told the
troopers to fire; I was willing to die in the service
of my prince, my country, and my religion, as well
as for themselves, whom I was trying to benefit by
procuring them the king's goodwill.

" These words, which I repeated several times
in the midst of the greatest uproar, gave them
pause.

" They commanded me to retire, as they did not
want to kill me. I said I should do nothing of the
kind : I was going into the middle of the troops to

611

CELEBRATED CRIMES

defend Roland against the charge of treason, or be
put to death myself, unless I could convince them
that what I had proposed to him and Cavalier was
for the good of the country, of our religion, and the
brethren; and having thus expostulated at the top
of my voice against thirty voices all trying to drown
mine for about an hour, I offered to fight the man
who had induced them to oppose us.

" At this offer they pointed their muskets at me
once more; but Maille, Malplach, and some others
threw themselves before me, and although they were
unarmed, had enough influence to hinder my being
insulted ; I was forced, however, to retreat.

" In leaving, I warned them that they were
about to bring great misfortunes on the province,
whereupon a man named Claris stepped out from
among the troops, and approaching me exclaimed,
' Go on, sir, and God bless you ! We know that you
mean well, and were the first to be taken in. But go
on working for the good of the country, and God
will bless you.' "

D'Aygaliers returned to the marechal, who, furi-
ous at the turn things had taken, resolved instantly
to break off all negotiations and have recourse once
more to measures of severity. However, before
actually carrying out this determination, he wrote
the following letter to the king : —

612

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

" Sire, — It is always my glory to execute faith-
fully your Majesty's orders, whatever those orders
may be ; but I should have been able, on many occa-
sions since coming here, to display my zeal for your
Majesty's service in other ways if I had not had to
deal with madmen on whom no dependence could be
placed. As soon as we were ready to attack them,
they offered to submit, but a little later changed
their minds again. Nothing could be a greater
proof of madness than their hesitation to accept a
pardon of which they were unworthy, and which
was so generously offered by your Majesty. If they
do not soon make up their minds, I shall bring them
back to the paths of duty by force, and thus restore
this province to that state of peace which has been
disturbed by these fools."

The day after writing this letter to the king, Ro-
land sent Maille to M. de Villars to beg him to wait
till Saturday and Sunday the 7th and the 8th June
were over, before resorting to severity, that being
the end of the truce. He gave him a solemn promise
that he would, in the interval, either bring in his
troops to the last man, or would himself surrender
along with a hundred and fifty followers. The
marechal consented to wait till Saturday morning,
but as soon as Saturday arrived he gave orders to
attack the Camisards, and the next day led a con-

613

CELEBRATED CRIMES

siderable body of troops to Carnoulet, intending to
take the Huguenots by surprise, as word had been
brought that they were all gathered there. They,
however, received intelligence of his plan, and
evacuated the village during the night.

The village had to pay dearly for its sin of hos-
pitality; it was pillaged and burnt down: the niique-
lets even murdered two women whom they found
there, and d'Aygaliers failed to obtain any satis-
faction for this crime. In this manner M. de Villars
kept the fatal promise he had given, and internecine
war raged once more.

Furious at having missed the Camisards, de
Menon having heard from his scouts that Roland
was to sleep next night at the chateau de Prade, went
to M. de Villars and asked leave to conduct an expe-
dition against the chief. He was almost sure of
taking Roland by surprise, having procured a guide
whose knowledge of the country was minute. The
marechal gave him carte blanche. In the evening
Menon set out with two hundred grenadiers. He
had already put three-quarters of the way behind
him without being discovered, when an Englishman
met them bv chance. This man was serving under
Roland, but had been visiting his sweetheart in a
neighbouring village, and was on his way home when
he fell among Menon's grenadiers. Without a
thought for his own safety, he fired off his gun.

614

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

shouting, " Fly ! fly ! The royals are upon you ! "
The sentinels took up the cry, Roland jumped out
of bed, and, without staying for clothes or horse,
ran off in his shirt, escaping by a postern gate which
opened on the forest just as de Menon entered by
another. He found Roland's bed still warm, and
took possession of his clothes, finding in a coat-
pocket a purse containing thirty-five louis, and in
the stables three superb horses. The Camisards
answered this beginning of hostilities by a murder.
Four of them, thinking they had reasons for dis-
pleasure against one of M. de Baville's subordinates
named Daude, who was both mayor and magistrate
at Le Vigan, hid in a corn-field which he had to
pass on his way back from La Valette, his country
place. Their measures were successful : Daude came
along just as was expected, and as he had not the
slightest suspicion of the impending danger, he con-
tinued conversing with M. de Mondardier, a gentle-
man of the neighbourhood who had asked for the
hand of Daude's daughter in marriage that very
day. Suddenly he found himself surrounded by
four men, who, upbraiding him for his exactions
and cruelties, shot him twice through the head with
a pistol. They offered no violence to M. de Mon-
dardier except to deprive him of his laced hat and
sword. The day on which M. de Villars heard of
this murder he set a price on the heads of Roland,

615

CELEBRATED CRIMES

Ravanel, and Catinat. Still the example set by Cav-
alier, joined to the resumption of hostilities, was not
without influence on the Camisards ; every day letters
arrived from single troopers offering to lay down
their arms, and in one day thirty rebels came in and
put themselves into Lalande's hands, while twenty
surrendered to Grandval; these were accorded not
only pardon, but received a reward, in hopes that
they might be able to induce others to do like them ;
and on the 15th June eight of the troops which had
abandoned Cavalier at Calvisson made submission;
while twelve others asked to be allowed to return to
their old chief to follow him wherever he went. This
request was at once granted : they were sent to Vala-
bregues, where they found forty-two of their old
comrades, amongst whom were Duplan and Cava-
lier's young brother, who had been ordered there a
few days before. As they arrived they were given
quarters in the barracks, and received good pay —
the chiefs forty sous a day, and the privates ten. So
they felt as happy as possible, being well fed and
well lodged, and spent their time preaching, praying,
and psalm-singing, in season and out of season. All
this, says La Baume, was so disagreeable to the
inhabitants of the place, who were Catholics, that
if they had not been guarded by the king's soldiers
they would have been pitched into the Rhone.

616

CHAPTER V

MEANTIME the date of Cavalier's departure
drew near. A town was to be named in
which he was to reside at a sufficient distance from
the theatre of war to prevent the rebels from depend-
ing on him any more ; in this town he was to organ-
ise his regiment, and as soon as it was complete it
was to go, under his command, to Spain, and fight
for the king. M. de Villars was still on the same
friendly terms with him, treating him, not like a
rebel, but according to his new rank in the French
army. On the 21st June he told him that he was to
get ready to leave the next day, and at the same
time he handed him an advance on their future pay
— fifty louis for himself, thirty for Daniel Billard,
who had been made lieutenant-colonel in the place
of Ravanel, ten for each captain, five for each lieu-
tenant, two for each sergeant, and one for each
private. The number of his followers had then
reached one hundred and fifty, only sixty of whom
were armed. M. de Vassiniac, major in the Fimar-
cpn regiment, accompanied them with fifty dragoons
and fifty of the rank and file from Hainault.

617

CELEBRATED CRIMES

All along the road Cavalier and his men met with
a courteous reception ; at Macon they found orders
awaiting them to halt. Cavalier at once wrote to
M. de Chamillard to tell him that he had things of
importance to communicate to him, and the minister
sent a courier of the Cabinet called Lavallee to bring
Cavalier to Versailles. This message more than
fulfilled all Cavalier's hopes : he knew that he had
been greatly talked about at court, and in spite of
his natural modesty the reception he had met with
at Nimes had given him new ideas, if not of his own
merit, at least of his own importance. Besides, he
felt that his services to the king deserved some
recognition.

The way in which Cavalier was received by
Chamillard did not disturb these golden dreams :
the minister welcomed the young colonel like a man
whose worth he appreciated, and told him that the
great lords and ladies of the court were not less
favourably disposed towards him. The next day
Chamillard announced to Cavalier that the king
desired to see him, and that he was to keep himself
prepared for a summons to court. Two days later,
Cavalier received a letter from the minister telling
him to be at the palace at four o'clock in the after-
noon, and he would place him on the grand stair-
case, up which the king would pass.

Cavalier put on his handsomest clothes, for the
618

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

first time in his life perhaps taking trouble with his
toilet. He had fine features, to which his extreme
youth, his long fair hair, and the gentle expression
of his eyes lent much charm. Two years of warfare
had given him a martial air; in short, even among
the most elegant, he might pass as a beau cavalier.

At three o'clock he reached Versailles, and found
Chamillard waiting for him; all the courtiers of
every rank were in a state of great excitement, for
they had learned that the great Louis had expressed
a wish to meet the late Cevenol chief, whose name
had been pronounced so loud and so often in the
mountains of Languedoc that its echoes had re-
sounded in the halls of Versailles. Cavalier had not
been mistaken in thinking that everyone was curi-
ous to see him, only as no one yet knew in what
light the king regarded him, the courtiers dared not
accost him for fear of compromising their dignity;
the manner of his reception by His Majesty would
regulate the warmth of his reception by everyone
else.

Met thus by looks of curiosity and affected
silence, the young colonel felt some embarrassment,
and this increased when Chamillard, who had ac-
companied him to his appointed place, left him to
rejoin the king. However, in a few moments he
did what embarrassed people so often do, hid his
shyness under an air of disdain, and, leaning on the

619

CELEBRATED CRIMES

balustrade, crossed his legs and played with the
feather of his hat.

When half an hour had passed in this manner, a
great commotion was heard : Cavalier turned in
the direction from which it came, and perceived the
king just entering the vestibule. It was the first
time he had seen him, but he recognised him at once.
Cavalier's knees knocked together and his face
flushed.

The king mounted the stairs step by step with his
usual dignity, stopping from time to time to say a
word or make a sign with head or hand. Behind
him, two steps lower, came Chamillardj moving and
stopping as the king moved and stopped, and an-
swering the questions which His Majesty put to
him in a respectful but formal and precise
manner.

Reaching the level on which Cavalier stood, the
king stopped under pretext of pointing out to Cha-
millard a new ceiling which Le Brun had just
finished, but really to have a good look at the singu-
lar man who had maintained a struggle against two
marshals of France and treated with a third on
equal terms. When he had examined him quite at
his ease, he turned to Chamillard, pretending he had
only just caught sight of the stranger, and asked: —

" Who is this young gentleman? w

" Sire," answered the minister, stepping forward
620

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

to present him to the king, "this is Colonel Jean
Cavalier."

" Ah yes," said the king contemptuously, " the
former baker of Anduze ! "

And shrugging his shoulders disdainfully, he
passed on.

Cavalier on his side had, like Chamillard, taken a
step forward, when the scornful answer of the great
king changed him into a statue. For an instant he
stood motionless and pale as death, then instinctively
he laid his hand on his sword, but becoming con-
scious that he was lost if he remained an instant
longer among these people, whom not one of his
motions escaped, although they pretended to despise
him too much to be aware of his presence, he dashed
down the staircase and through the hall, upsetting
two or three footmen who were in his way, hurried
into the garden, ran across it at full speed, and re-
gaining his room at the hotel, threw himself on the
floor, where he rolled like a maniac, uttering cries
of rage, and cursing the hour when, trusting to the
promises of M. de Villars, he had abandoned the
mountains where he was as much a king as Louis
xiv at Versailles.

The same evening he received orders to leave
Paris and rejoin his regiment at Macon. He there-
fore set out the next morning, without see'.ng M,
de Chamillard again.

621

CELEBRATED CRIMES

Cavalier on arriving at Macon found that his com-
rades had had a visit from M. d'Aygaliers, who
had come again to Paris, in the hope of obtaining
more from the king than M. de Villars could or
would grant.

Cavalier, without telling his comrades of the
strange manner in which the king had received him,
gave them to understand that he was beginning to
fear that not only would the promises they had re-
ceived be broken, but that some strange trick would
be played upon them.

Thereupon these men, whose chief and oracle he
had been for so long, asked him what they ought
to do; Cavalier replied that if they would follow
him, their best course and his would be to take the
first opportunity of gaining the frontier and leaving
the country. They all declared themselves ready
to follow him anywhere. This caused Cavalier a
new pang of regret, for he could not help recollecting
that he had once had under his command fifteen hun-
dred men like these.

The next day Cavalier and his comrades set out on
their march without knowing whither they were be-
ing taken, not having been able to obtain any infor-
mation as to their destination from their escort — a
silence which confirmed them in their resolution.
As soon, therefore, as they reached Onnan, Cavalier
declared that he considered that the looked-for op-

622

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

portunity had arrived, asking them if they were still
in the same mind : they returned that they would do
whatever he advised. Cavalier then ordered them
to hold themselves in readiness, Daniel offered up a
prayer, and the prayer ended, the whole company
deserted in a body, and, crossing Mont Belliard,
entered Porentruy, and took the road to Lausanne.

Meantime d'Aygaliers, in his turn, arrived at
Versailles, with letters from M. de Villars for the
Duke of Beauvilliers, president of the king's council,
and for Chamillard. The evening of his arrival he
delivered these letters to those to whom they were
addressed, and both gentlemen promised to present
him to the king.

Four days later, Chamillard sent word to d'Ay-
galiers that he was to be next day at the door of the
king's chamber at the time when the council entered.
D'Aygaliers was punctual, the king appeared at the
usual hour, and as he paused before d'Aygaliers,
Chamillard came forward and said —

" Baron d'Aygaliers, sire."

" I am very glad to see you, sir," said the king,
" for I am very much pleased with the zeal you have
displayed in Languedoc in my service — very much
pleased indeed."

" Sire," answered d'Aygaliers, " I consider myself
most unfortunate in that I have been able to accom-
plish nothing deserving of the gracious words in

623

CELEBRATED CRIMES

which your Majesty deigns to address me, and I
pray God of His grace to grant me in the future an
opportunity of proving my zeal and loyalty in your
Majesty's service more clearly than hitherto."

" Never mind, never mind," said the king. " I
repeat, sir, that I am very much pleased with what
you have done."

And he entered the room where the council was
waiting.

D'Aygaliers went away only half satisfied : he had
not come so far only to receive commendation from
the king, but in the hope of obtaining some conces-
sion for his brethren ; but with Louis xiv it was im-
possible either to intercede or complain, one could
only wait.

The same evening Chamillard sent for the baron,
and told him that as Marechal Villars had mentioned
in his letter that the Camisards had great confidence
in him, d'Aygaliers, he wished to ask him if he were
willing to go once more to them and try and bring
them back to the path of duty.

"Certainly I am willing; but I fear things have
now got so far that there will be great difficulty in
calming the general perturbation of mind."

" But what can these people want? " asked Cha-
millard, as if he had just heard them spoken of for
the first time, " and by what means can we pacify
them?"

624

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

" In my opinion," said the baron, " me king
should allow to all his subjects the free exercise of
their religion."

" What ! legalise once more the exercise of the
so-called Reformed religion ! " exclaimed the minis-
ter. " Be sure you never mention such a thing again.
The king would rather see his kingdom destroyed
than consent to such a measure."

" Monseigneur," replied the baron, " if that is the
case, then I must say with great regret that I know
of no other way to calm the discontent which will
ultimately result in the ruin of one of the fairest
provinces in France."

" But that is unheard-of obstinacy," said the min-
ister, lost in astonishment; "these people will destroy
themselves, and drag their country down with them.
If they cannot conform to our religion, why do they
not worship God in their own way at home? No
one will disturb them as long as they don't insist on
public worship."

" At first that was all they wanted, monseigneur ;
and I am convinced that if people had not been
dragged to confession and communion by force, it
would have been easy to keep them in that submissive
frame of mind from which they were only driven
by despair; but at present they say that it is not
enough to pray at home, they want to be married,
to have their children baptised and instructed, and

625

CELEBRATED CRIMES

to die and be buried according to the ordinances of
their own faith."

" Where may you have seen anyone who was
ever made to communicate by force? " asked Cha-
millard.

D'Aygaliers looked at the minister in surprise,
thinking he spoke in joke; but seeing he was quite
serious, he answered —

" Alas, monseigneur, my late father and my
mother, who is still living, are both instances of
people subjected to this indignity."

"Are you, then, not a Catholic?" asked Cha-
millard.

" No, monseigneur," replied d'Aygaliers.

" Then how did you manage to return to France?"

" To speak the truth, sir, I only came back to help
my mother to escape; but she never could make up
her mind to leave France, as such a step was sur-
rounded by many difficulties which she feared she
could never surmount. So she asked my other rela-
tions to persuade me to remain. I yielded to their
importunities on condition that they would never in-
terfere with my beliefs. To accomplish this end
they got a priest with whom they were intimate to
say that I had changed my views once more, and I
did not contradict the report. It was a great sin
on my part, and I deeply repent it. I must add, how-
ever, that whenever anyone has asked me the ques-

626

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

tion your Excellency asked me just now I have al-
ways given the same reply."

The minister did not seem to take the baron's
frankness in bad part ; only he remarked, when dis-
missing him, that he hoped he would find out some
way of ridding the kingdom of those who refused
to think in religious matters as His Majesty com-
manded.

D'Aygaliers replied that it was a problem to which
he had given much thought, but without ever being
able to find a solution, but that he would think about
it more earnestly in future. He then withdrew.

Some days later, Chamillard sent word to d'Ay-
galiers that the king would graciously give him a
farewell audience. The baron relates what took
place at this second interview, as follows: —

" His Majesty," says he, " received me in the
council chamber, and was so good as to repeat once
more in the presence of all his ministers that he wTas
very much pleased with my services, but that there
was one thing about me he should like to correct. I
begged His Majesty to tell me what the fault was,
and I should try to get rid of it at the peril of my
life.

' It is your religion,' said the king. 'I should
like to have you become a good Catholic, so that
I might be able to grant you favours and enable you

627

CELEBRATED CRIMES

to serve me better.' His Majesty added that I ought
to seek instruction, and that then I should one day
recognise what a great benefit he desired to bring
within my reach.

" I answered that I would esteem myself happy
if at the cost of my life I could prove the burning
zeal with which I was filled for the service of the
greatest of earthly kings, but that I should be un-
worthy of the least of his favours if I obtained it
by hypocrisy or by anything of which my conscience
did not approve, but that I was grateful for the
goodness which made him anxious for my salvation.
I told him also that I had already taken every op-
portunity of receiving instruction, and had tried to
put aside the prejudices arising from my birth, such
as often hindered people from recognising the truth,
with the result that I had at one time almost lost all
sense of religion, until God, taking pity on me, had
opened my eyes and brought me out of that deplor-
able condition, making me see that the faith in which
I had been born was the only one for me. * And I
can assure your Majesty,' I added, ' that many of
the Languedoc bishops who ought, it seems to me,
to try to make us Catholics, are the instruments
which Providence uses to prevent us from becoming
so. For instead of attracting us by gentleness and
good example, they ceaselessly subject us to all
kinds of persecutions, as if to convince us that God

628

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

is punishing us for our cowardice in giving up a
religion which we know to be good, by delivering us
up to pastors who, far from labouring to assure
our salvation, use all their efforts to drive us to
despair."

"At this the king shrugged his shoulders and
said, ' Enough, do not say any more.' I asked for
his blessing as the king and father of all his sub-
jects. The king burst out laughing, and told me
that M. de Chamillard would give me his orders."

In virtue of this intimation d'Aygaliers went next
day to the minister's country house ; for Chamillard
had given him that address, and there he learned
that the king had granted him a pension of 800
livres. The baron remarked that, not having worked
for money, he had hoped for a better reward; as
far as money was concerned, he desired only the re-
imbursement of the actual expenses of his journeys
to and fro, but Chamillard answered that the king
expected all that he offered and whatever he offered
to be accepted with gratitude. To this there was
no possible reply, so the same evening d'Aygaliers
set out on his return to Languedoc.

Three months later, Chamillard forwarded him an
order to leave the kingdom, telling him that he was
to receive a pension of four hundred crowns per an-
num, and enclosing the first quarter in advance,

629

CELEBRATED CRIMES

As there was no means of evading this command,
D'Aygaliers set out for Geneva, accompanied by
thirty-three followers, arriving there on the 23rd
of September. Once rid of him, Louis the Magnifi-
cent thought that he had done his part nobly and
that he owed him nothing further, so that d'Ayga-
liers waited a whole year in vain for the second
quarter of his pension.

At the end of this time, as his letters to Chamil-
lard remained unanswered, and finding himself with-
out resources in a foreign country, he believed him-
self justified in returning to France and taking up
his residence on his family estate. Unfortunately,
on his way through Lyons, the provost of merchants,
hearing of his return, had him arrested, and sent
word to the king, who ordered him to be taken to
the chateau de Loches. After a year's imprison-
ment, d'Aygaliers, who had just entered on his
thirty-fifth year, resolved to try and escape, prefer-
ring to die in the attempt rather than remain a
prisoner for life. He succeeded in getting posses-
sion of a file with which he removed one of the bars
of his window, and by means of knotting his sheets
together, he got down, taking the loosened bar with
him to serve, in case of need, as a weapon. A sen-
tinel who was near cried, " Who goes there ? " but
d'Aygaliers stunned him with his bar. The cry,
however, had given the alarm : a second sentinel

630

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

saw a man flying, fired at him, and killed him on the
spot.

Such was the reward of the devoted patriotism of
Baron d'Aygaliers !

Meantime Roland's troops had increased greatly
in number, having been joined by the main body of
those who had once been commanded by Cavalier, so
that he had about eight hundred men at his disposal.
Some distance away, another chief, named Joanny,
had four hundred; Larose, to whom Castanet had
transferred his command, found himself at the head
of three hundred; Boizeau de Rochegude was fol-
lowed by one hundred, Saltet de Soustel by two hun-
dred, Louis Coste by fifty, and Catinat by forty, so
that, in spite of the victory of Montrevel and the
negotiations of M. de Villars, the Camisards still
formed an effective force of eighteen hundred and
ninety men, not to speak of many single troopers
who owned no commander but acted each for him-
self, and were none the less mischievous for that.
All these troops, except these latter, obeyed Roland,
who since the defection of Cavalier had been recog-
nised as generalissimo of the forces. M. de Villars
thought if he could separate Roland from his troops
as he had separated Cavalier, his plans would be
more easy to carry out.

So he made use of every means within his reach
to gain over Roland, and as soon as one plan failed

6^1

CELEBRATED CRIMES

he tried another. At one moment he was almost
sure of obtaining his object by the help of a certain
Jourdan de Mianet, a great friend of his, who of-
fered his services as an intermediary, but who failed
like all the others, receiving from Roland a positive
refusal, so that it became evident that resort must
be had to other means than those of persuasion. A
sum of ioo louis had already been set on Roland's
head : this sum was now doubled.

Three days afterwards, a young man from Uzes,
by name Malarte, in whom Roland had every confi-
dence, wrote to M. de Paratte that the Camisard
general intended to pass the night of the 14th of
August at the chateau Castelnau.

De Paratte immediately made his dispositions,
and ordered Lacoste-Badie, at the head of two com-
panies of dragoons, and all the officers at Uzes who
were well mounted, to hold themselves in readiness
to start on an expedition at eight o'clock in the
evening, but not revealing its object to them till the
time came. At eight o'clock, having been told what
they had to do, they set off at such a pace that they
came in sight of the chateau within an hour, and
were obliged to halt and conceal themselves, lest
they should appear too soon, before Roland had
retired for the night. But they need not have been
afraid ; the Camisard chief, who was accustomed to
rely on all his men as on himself, had gone to bed

632

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

without any suspicion, having full confidence in the
vigilance of one of his officers, named Grimaud,
who had stationed himself as sentinel on the roof of
the chateau. Led by Malarte, Lacoste-Badie and
his dragoons took a narrow covered way, which led
them to the foot of the walls, so that when Grimaud
saw them it was already too late, the chateau being
surrounded on all sides. Firing off his gun, he
cried, " To arms ! " Roland, roused by the cry and
the shot, leaped out of bed, and taking his clothes in
one hand and his sword in the other, ran out of his
room. At the door he met Grimaud, who, instead of
thinking of his own safety, had come to watch over
that of his chief. They both ran to the stables to get
horses, but three of their men — Marchand, Bour-
dalie, and Bayos — had been before them and had
seized on the best ones, and riding them bare-backed
had dashed through the front gates before the dra-
goons could stop them. The horses that were left
were so wretched that Roland felt there was no
chance of out-distancing the dragoons by their help,
so he resolved to fly on foot, thus avoiding the open
roads and being able to take refuge in every ravine
and every bush as cover. He therefore hastened
with Grimaud and four other officers who had gath-
ered round him towards a small back gate which
opened on the fields, but as there was, besides the
troops which entered the chateau, a ring of dragoons

633

CELEBRATED CRIMES

round it, they fell at once into the hands of some
men who had been placed in ambush. Seeing him-
self surrounded, Roland let fall the clothes which
he had not yet had time to put on, placed his back
against a tree, drew his sword, and challenged the
boldest, whether officer or private, to approach. His
features expressed such resolution, that when he
thus, alone and half naked, defied them all, there
was a moment's hesitation, during which no one
ventured to take a forward step ; but this pause was
broken by the report of a gun : the arm which Ro-
land had stretched out against his adversaries fell
to his side, the sword with which he had threatened
them escaped from his hand, his knees gave way, so
that his body, which was only supported by the tree
against which he leaned, after remaining an instant
erect, gradually sank to the ground. Collecting all
his strength, Roland raised his two hands to Heaven,
as if to call down the vengeance of God upon his
murderers, then, without having uttered a single
word, he fell forward dead, shot through the heart.
The name of the dragoon who killed him was
Soubeyrand.

Maillie, Grimaud, Coutereau, Guerin, and Res-
sal, the five Camisard officers, seeing their
chief dead, let themselves be taken as if they
were children, without thinking of making any
resistance.

634

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

The dead body of Roland was carried back in
triumph to Uzes, and from there to Nimes, where it
was put upon trial as if still alive. It was sentenced
to be dragged on hurdles and then burnt. The exe-
cution of this sentence was carried out with such
pomp as made it impossible for the one party to for-
get the punishment and for the other to forget the
martyrdom. At the end the ashes of Roland were
scattered to the four winds of heaven.

The execution of the five officers followed close
on that of their chief's body; they were condemned
to be broken on the wheel, and the sentence was car-
ried out on all at once. But their death, instead of
inspiring the Calvinists with terror, gave them
rather fresh courage, for, as an eye-witness relates,
the five Camisards bore their tortures not only with
fortitude, but with a light-heartedness which sur-
prised all present, especially those who had never
seen a Camisard executed before.

Malarte received his 200 louis, but to-day his
name is coupled with that of Judas in the minds of
his countrymen.

From this time on fortune ceased to smile on the
Camisards. Genius had gone with Cavalier, and
faith with Roland. The very day of the death of the
latter, one of their stores, containing more than
eighty sacks of corn, had been taken at Toiras. The
next day, Catinat, who, with a dozen men, was in

635

CELEBRATED CRIMES

hiding in a vineyard of La Vaunage, was surprised
by a detachment of Soissonnais; eleven of his men
were killed, the twelfth made prisoner, and he him-
self barely escaped with a severe wound. The 25th
of the same month, a cavern near Sauve, which the
rebels used as a store, and which contained one hun-
dred and fifty sacks of fine wheat, was discovered;
lastly, Chevalier de Froulay had found a third
hiding-place near Mailet. In this, which had been
used not only as a store but as a hospital, besides
a quantity of salt beef, wine, and flour, six wounded
Camisards were found, who were instantly shot as
they lay.

The only band which remained unbroken was
Ravanel's, but since the departure of Cavalier things
had not gone well with his lieutenant.

In consequence of this, and also on account of the
successive checks which the other bodies of Camisard
troops had met with, Ravanel proclaimed a solemn
fast, in order to intercede with God to protect the
Huguenot cause. On Saturday, the 13th September,
he led his entire force to the wood of St. Benazet,
intending to pass the whole of the next day with
them there in prayer. But treason was rife. Two
peasants who knew of this plan gave information to
M. Lenoir, mayor of Le Vigan, and he sent word
to the marechal and M. de Baville, who were at
Anduze.

636

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

Nothing could have been more welcome to the
governor than this important information: he made
the most careful disposition of his forces, hoping to
destroy the rebellion at one blow. He ordered M.
de Courten, a brigadier-colonel in command at Alais,
to take a detachment of the troops under him and
patrol the banks of the Gardon between Ners and
Castagnols. He was of opinion that if the Cami-
sards were attacked on the other side by a body of
soldiers drawn from Anduze, which he had stationed
during the night at Dommersargues, they would try
to make good their retreat towards the river. The
force at Dommersargues might almost be called a
small army; for it was composed of a Swiss
battalion, a battalion of the Hainault regiment,
one from the Charolais regiment, and four com-
panies of dragoons from Fimarcpn and Saint-
Sernin.

Everything took place as the peasants had said :
on Saturday the 13th, the Camisards entered, as we
have seen, the wood of St. Benazet, and passed the
night there.

At break of day the royals from Dommersargues
began their advance. The Camisard outposts soon
perceived the movement, and warned Ravanel, who
held his little council of war. Everyone was in
favour of instant retreat, so they retired towards
Ners, intending to cross the Gardon below that

&Z7

CELEBRATED CRIMES

town : just as M. de Villars had foreseen, the Cami-
sards did everything necessary for the success of his
plans, and ended by walking right into the trap set
for them.

On emerging from the wood of St. Benazet, they
caught sight of a detachment of royals drawn up
and waiting for them between Marvejols and a mill
called the Moulin-du-Pont. Seeing the road closed
in this direction, they turned sharp to the left, and
gained a rocky valley which ran parallel to the Gar-
don. This they followed till they came out below
Marvejols, where they crossed the river. They now
thought themselves out of danger, thanks to this
manoeuvre, but suddenly they saw another detach-
ment of royals lying on the grass near the mill of
La Scie. They at once halted again, and then, be-
lieving themselves undiscovered, turned back, mov-
ing as noiselessly as possible, intending to recross
the river and make for Cardet. But they only
avoided one trap to fall into another, for in this di-
rection they were met by the Hainault battalion,
which swooped down upon them. A few of these
ill-fated men rallied at the sound of Ravanel's voice
and made an effort to defend themselves in spite
of the prevailing confusion; but the danger was so
imminent, the foes so numerous, and their numbers
decreased so rapidly under the fierce assault, that
their example failed of effect, and flight- became gen-

638

The dead body of Roland was sentenced to be dragged on
hurdles and then burnt.

—p. 635
From the painting l>;i Eddelbuttel

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

eral : every man trusted to chance for guidance, and,
caring nothing for the safety of others, thought
only of his own.

Then it ceased to be a battle and become a mas-
sacre, for the royals were ten to one; and among
those they encountered, only sixty had firearms, the
rest, since the discovery of their various magazines,
having been reduced to arm themselves with bad
swords, pitchforks, and bayonets attached to sticks.
Hardly a man survived the fray. Ravanel himself
only succeeded in escaping by throwing himself into
the river, where he remained under water between
two rocks for seven hours, only coming to the sur-
face to breathe. When night fell and the dragoons
had retired, he also fled.

This was the last battle of the war, which had
lasted four years. With Cavalier and Roland, those
two mountain giants, the power of the rebels disap-
peared. As the news of the defeat spread, the Cami-
sard chiefs and soldiers becoming convinced that the
Lord had hidden His face from them, surrendered
one by one. The first to set an example was Casta-
net. On September 6th, a week after the defeat of
Ravanel, he surrendered to the marechal. On the
19th, Catinat and his lieutenant, Frangois Souvayre,
tendered their submission ; on the 22nd, Amet, Ro-
land's brother, came in ; on October 4th, Joanny ; on
the 9th, Larose, Valette, Salomon, Laforet, Mou-

639

Dumas — Vol. 2 — 8

CELEBRATED CRIMES

Iieres, Salles, Abraham and Marion; on the 20th,
Fidele ; and on the 25th, Rochegude.

Each made what terms he could; in general the
conditions were favourable. Most of those who sub-
mitted received rewards of money, some more, some
less; the smallest amount given being 200 livres.
They all received passports, and were ordered to
leave the kingdom, being sent, accompanied by an
escort and at the king's expense, to Geneva. The
following is the account given by Marion of the
agreement he came to with the Marquis Lalande;
probably all the others were of the same nature.

" I was deputed," he says, " to treat with this
lieutenant-general in regard to the surrender of my
own troops and those of Larose, and to arrange
terms for the inhabitants of thirty-five parishes who
had contributed to our support during the war. The
result of the negotiations was that all the prisoners
from our cantons should be set at liberty, and be
reinstated in their possessions, along with all the
others. The inhabitants of those parishes which had
been ravaged by fire were to be exempt from land-
tax for three years; and in no parish were the in-
habitants to be taunted with the past, nor molested
on the subject of religion, but were to be free to
worship God in their own houses according to their
consciences."

These agreements were fulfilled with such punct-
640

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

uality, that Larose was permitted to open the prison
doors of St. Hippolyte to forty prisoners the very
day he made submission.

As we have said, the Camisards, according as they
came in, were sent off to Geneva. D'Aygaliers,
whose fate we have anticipated, arrived there on
September 23rd, accompanied by Cavalier's eldest
brother, Malpach, Roland's secretary, and thirty-six
Camisards. Catinat and Castanet arrived there on
the 8th October, along with twenty-two other per-
sons, while Larose, Laforet, Salomon, Moulieres,
Salles, Marion, and Fidele reached it under the es-
cort of forty dragoons from Fimarcon in the month
of November.

Of all the chiefs who had turned Languedoc for
four years into a vast arena, only Ravanel remained,
but he refused either to surrender or to leave the
country. On the 8th October the marechal issued
an order declaring he had forfeited all right to the
favour of an amnesty, and offering a reward of 150
louis to whoever delivered him up living, and 2400
livres to whoever brought in his dead body, while
any hamlet, village, or town which gave him refuge
would be burnt to the ground and the inhabitants put
to the sword.

The revolt seemed to be at an end and peace es-
tablished. So the marechal was recalled to court,
and left Nimes on January the 6th. Before his de-

641

CELEBRATED CRIMES

parture he received the States of Languedoc, who
bestowed on him not only the praise which was his
due for having tempered severity with mercy, but
also a purse of 12,000 livres, while a sum of 8000
livres was presented to his wife. But all this was
only a prelude to the favours awaiting him at court.
On the day he returned to Paris the king decorated
him with all the royal orders and created him a duke.
On the following day he received him, and thus ad-
dressed him : " Sir, your past services lead me to ex-
pect much of those you will render me in the future.
The affairs of my kingdom would be better con-
ducted if I had several Villars at my disposal. Hav-
ing only one, I must always send him where he is
most needed. It was for that reason I sent you to
Languedoc. You have, while there, restored tran-
quillity to my subjects, you must now defend them
against their enemies ; for I shall send you to com-
mand my army on the Moselle in the next cam-
paign."

The Duke of Berwick arrived at Montpellier on
the 17th March to replace Marechal Villars. His
first care was to learn from M. de Baville the exact
state of affairs. M. de Baville told him that they
were not at all settled as they appeared to be on the
surface. In fact, England and Holland, desiring
nothing so much as that an intestine war should
waste France, were making unceasing efforts to

642

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

induce the exiles to return home, promising that
tin's time they would really support them by lend-
ing arms, ammunition, and men, and it was said
that some were already on their way back, among
the number Castanet.

And indeed the late rebel chief, tired of inaction,
had left Geneva in the end of February, and ar-
rived safely at Vivarais. He had held a religious
meeting in a cave near La Goree, and had drawn
to his side Valette of Vals and Boyer of Valon.
Just as the three had determined to penetrate into
the Cevennes, they were denounced by some peas-
ants before a Swiss officer named Muller, who was
in command of a detachment of troops in the vil-
lage of Riviere. Muller instantly mounted his
horse, and guided by the informers made his way
into the little wood in which the Camisards had
taken refuge, and fell upon them quite unexpect-
edly. Boyer was killed in trying to escape; Casta-
net was taken and brought to the nearest prison, '
where he was joined the next day by Valette, who
had also been betrayed by some peasants whom he
had asked for assistance.

The first punishment inflicted on Castanet was,
that he was compelled to carry in his hand the
head of Boyer all the way from La Goree to Mont-
pellier. He protested vehemently at first, but in
vain: it was fastened to his wrist by the hair;

643

CELEBRATED CRIMES

whereupon he kissed it on both cheeks, and went
through the ordeal as if it were a religious act, ad-
dressing words of prayer to the head as he might
have done to a relic of a martyr.

Arrived at Montpellier, Castanet was examined,
and at first persisted in saying that he had only
returned from exile because he had not the where-
withal to live abroad. But when put to the torture
he was made to endure such agony that, despite
his courage and constancy, he confessed that he
had formed a plan to introduce a band of Hugue-
not soldiers with their officers into the Cevennes
by way of Dauphine or by water, and while waiting
for their arrival he had sent on emissaries in ad-
vance to rouse the people to revolt; that he himself
had also shared in this work; that Catinat was at
the moment in Languedoc or Vivarais engaged in
the same task, and provided with a considerable
sum of money sent him by foreigners for distribu-
tion, and that several persons of still greater im-
portance would soon cross the frontier and join
him.

Castanet was condemned to be broken on the
wheel. As he was about to be led to execution,
Abbe Tremondy, the cure of Notre-Dame, and
Abbe Plomet, canon of the cathedral, came to his
cell to make a last effort to convert him, but he
refused to speak. They therefore went on before,

644

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

and awaited him on the scaffold. There they ap-
peared to inspire Castanet with more horror than
the instruments of torture, and while he addressed
the executioner as " brother," he called out to the
priests, " Go away out of my sight, imps from the
bottomless pit! What are you doing here, you
accursed tempters? I will die in the religion in
which I was born. Leave me alone, ye hypocrites,
leave me alone ! " But the two abbes were un-
moved, and Castanet expired cursing, not the exe-
cutioner but the two priests, whose presence during
his death-agony disturbed his soul, turning it away
from things which should have filled it.

Valette was sentenced to be hanged, and was
executed on the same day as Castanet.

In spite of the admissions wrung from Castanet
in March, nearly a month passed without any sign
of fresh intrigues or any attempt at rebellion. But
on the 17th of April, about seven o'clock in the
evening, M. de Baville received intelligence that
several Camisards had lately returned from abroad,
and were in hiding somewhere, though their re-
treat was not known. This information was laid
before the Duke of Berwick, and he and M. de
Baville ordered certain houses to be searched,
whose owners were in their opinion likely to have
given refuge to the malcontents. At midnight all
the forces which they could collect were divided

645

CELEBRATED CRIMES

into twelve detachments, composed of archers and
soldiers, and at the head of each detachment was
placed a man that could be depended upon. Du-
mayne, the king's lieutenant, assigned to each the
districts they were to search, and they all set out
at once from the town hall, at half-past twelve,
marching in silence, and separating at signs from
their leaders, so anxious were they to make no
noise. At first all their efforts were of no avail,
several houses being searched without any result;
but at length Jausserand, the diocesan provost, hav-
ing entered one of the houses which he and
Villa, captain of the town troops, had had assigned
to them, they found three men sleeping on mat-
tresses laid on the floor. The provost roused them
by asking them who they were, whence they
came, and what they were doing at Montpellier,
and as they, still half asleep, did not reply
quite promptly, he ordered them to dress and
follow him.

These three men were Flessiere, Gaillard, and
Jean-Louis. Flessiere was a deserter from the Fi-
marqon regiment : he it was who knew most about
the plot. Gaillard had formerly served in the Hai-
nault regiment ; and Jean-Louis, commonly called
" the Genevois," was a deserter from the Courten
regiment.

Flessiere, who was the leader, felt that it would
646

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

be a great disgrace to let themselves be taken with-
out resistance; he therefore pretended to obey, but
in lifting up his clothes, which lay upon a trunk,
he managed to secure two pistols, which he cocked.
At the noise made by the hammers the provost's
suspicions were aroused, and throwing himself on
Flessiere, he seized him round the waist from be-
hind. Flessiere, unable to turn, raised his arm and
fired over his shoulder. The shot missed the pro-
vost, merely burning a lock of his hair, but slightly
wounded one of his servants, who was carrying a
lantern. He then tried to fire a second shot, but
Jausserand, seizing him by the wrist with one hand,
blew out his brains with the other. While Jaus-
serand and Flessiere were thus struggling, Gaillard
threw himself on Villa, pinning his arms to his
sides. As he had no weapons, he tried to push him
to the wall, in order to stun him by knocking his
head against it ; but when the servant, being wound-
ed, let the lantern fall, he took advantage of the
darkness to make a dash for the door, letting go
his hold of his antagonist. Unfortunately for him,
the doors, of which there were two, were guarded,
and the guards, seeing a half-naked man running
away at the top of his speed, ran after him, firing
several shots. He received a wound which, though
not dangerous, impeded his flight, so that he was
soon overtaken and captured. They brought him

647

CELEBRATED CRIMES

back a prisoner to the town hall, where Flessiere's
dead body already lay.

Meanwhile Jean-Louis had had better luck.
While the two struggles as related above were go-
ing on, he slipped unnoticed to an open window
and got out into the street. He ran round the cor-
ner of the house, and disappeared like a shadow in
the darkness before the eyes of the guards. For a
long time he wandered from street to street, run-
ning down one and up another, till chance brought
him near La Poissonniere. Here he perceived a
beggar propped against a post and fast asleep; he
awoke him, and proposed that they should ex-
change clothes. As Jean-Louis' suit was new and
the beggar's in rags, the latter thought at first it was
a joke. Soon perceiving, however, that the offer
was made in all seriousness, he agreed to the ex-
change, and the two separated, each delighted with
his bargain. Jean-Louis approached one of the
gates of the town, in order to be able to get out as
soon as it was opened, and the begger hastened off
in another direction, in order to get away from the
man who had let him have so good a bargain, be-
fore he had time to regret the exchange he had
made.

But the night's adventures were far from being
over. The beggar was taken a prisoner, Jean-
Louis' coat being recognised, and brought to the

648

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

town hall, where the mistake was discovered. The
Genevois meantime got into a dark street, and lost
his way. Seeing three men approach, one of whom
carried a lantern, he went towards the light, in or-
der to find out where he was, and saw, to his sur-
prise, that one of the men was the servant whom
Flessiere had wounded, and who was now going
to have his wound dressed. The Genevois tried to
draw back into the shade, but it was too late : the
servant had recognised him. He then tried to fly;
but the wounded man soon overtook him, and al-
though one of his hands was disabled, he held him
fast with the other, so that the two men who were
with him ran up and easily secured him. He also
was brought to the town hall, where he found the
Duke of Berwick and M. de Baville, who were
awaiting the result of the affray.

Hardly had the prisoner caught sight of them
than, seeing himself already hanged, which was no
wonder considering the marvellous celerity with
which executions were conducted at that epoch,
he threw himself on his knees, confessed who he
was, and related for what reason he had joined
the fanatics. He went on to say that as he had
not joined them of his own free will, but had been
forced to do so, he would, if they would spare his
life, reveal important secrets to them, by means of
which they could arrest the principal conspirators.

649

CELEBRATED C R I M E S

His offer was so tempting and his life of so little
worth that the duke and de Baville did not long
hesitate, but pledged their word to spare his life
if the revelations he was about to make proved to
be of real importance. The bargain being con-
cluded, the Genevois made the following state-
ment : —

" That several letters having arrived from foreign
countries containing promises of men and money,
the discontented in the provinces had leagued to-
gether in order to provoke a fresh rebellion. By
means of these letters and other documents which
were scattered abroad, hopes were raised that M. de
Miremont, the last Protestant prince of the house
of Bourbon, would bring them reinforcements five
or six thousand strong. These reinforcements were
to come by sea and make a descent on Aigues-
Mortes or Cette, and two thousand Huguenots were
to arrive at the same time by way of Dauphine and
join the others as they disembarked.

" That in this hope Catinat, Clary, and Jonquet
had left Geneva and returned to France, and hav-
ing joined Ravanel had gone secretly through
those parts of the country known to be infected
with fanaticism, and made all necessary arrange-
ments, such as amassing powder and lead, munitions
of war, and stores of all kinds, as well as enrolling

650

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

the names of all those who were of age to bear arms.
Furthermore, they had made an estimate of what
each city, town, and village ought to contribute in
money or in kind to the ' League of the Children
of God,' so that they could count on having eight
or ten thousand men ready to rise at the first signal.
They had furthermore resolved that there should
be risings in several places at the same time, which
places were already chosen, and each of those who
were to take part in the movement knew his ex-
act duty. At Montpellier a hundred of the most
determined amongst the disaffected were to set fire
in different quarters to the houses of the Catholics,
killing all who attempted to extinguish the fires,
and with the help of the Huguenot inhabitants were
to slaughter the garrison, seize the citadel, and carry
off the Duke of Berwick and M. de Baville. The
same things were to be done at Nimes, Uzes, Alais,
Anduze, Saint-Hippolyte, and Sommieres. Lastly,
he said, this conspiracy had been going on for more
than three months, and the conspirators, in order
not to be found out, had only revealed their plans
to those whom they knew to be ready to join them :
they had not admitted a single woman to their con-
fidence, or any man whom it was possible to sus-
pect. Further, they had only met at night and a
few persons at a time, in certain country houses, to
which admittance was gained by means of a counter-

651

CELEBRATED CRIMES

sign ; the 25th of April was the day fixed for the
general rising and the execution of these projects."

As may be seen, the danger was imminent, as
there was only six days' interval between the reve-
lation and the expected outburst; so the Genevois
was consulted, under renewed promises of safety
for himself, as to the best means of seizing on the
principal chiefs in the shortest possible time. He
replied that he saw no other way but to accompany
them himself to Nimes, where Catinat and Ravanel
were in hiding, in a house of which he did not
know the number and in a street of which he did
not know the name, but which he was sure of
recognising when he saw them. If this advice were
to be of any avail, there was no time to be lost, for
Ravanel and Catinat were to leave Nimes on the
20th or the 21st at latest; consequently, if they did
not set off at once, the chiefs would no longer be
there when they arrived. The advice seemed good,
so the marechal and the intendant hastened to fol-
low it: the informer was sent to Nimes guarded by
six archers, the conduct of the expedition was
given to Barnier, the provost's lieutenant, a man of
intellect and common sense, and in whom the pro-
vost had full confidence. He carried letters for the
Marquis of Sandricourt.

As they arrived late on the evening of the 19th
652

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

the Genevois was at once led up and down the
streets of Nimes, and, as he had promised, he point-
ed out several houses in the district of Sainte-
Eugenie. Sandricourt at once ordered the garrison
officers, as well as those of the municipal and Cour-
ten regiments, to put all their soldiers under arms
and to station them quietly throughout the town so
as to surround that district. At ten o'clock, the
Marquis of Sandricourt, having made certain that
his instructions had been carefully carried out, gave
orders to MM. de L'Estrade, Barnier, Joseph Mar-
tin, Eusebe, the major of the Swiss regiment, and
several other officers, along with ten picked men,
to repair to the house of one Alison, a silk mer-
chant, this house having been specially pointed
out by the prisoner. This they did, but seeing the
door open, they had little hope of finding the chiefs
of a conspiracy in a place so badly guarded ; never-
theless, determined to obey their instructions, they
glided softly into the hall. In a few moments,
during which silence and darkness reigned, they
heard people speaking rather loudly in an adjoin-
ing room, and by listening intently they caught the
following words : " It is quite sure that in less than
three weeks the king will be no longer master of
Dauphine, Vivarais, and Languedoc. I am being
sought for everywhere, and here I am in Nimes,
with nothing to fear."

653

CELEBRATED CRIMES

It was now quite clear to the listeners that close
at hand were some at least of those for whom they
were looking. They ran to the door, which was
ajar, and entered the room, sword in hand. They
found Ravanel, Jonquet, and Villas talking together,
one sitting on a table, another standing on the
hearth, and the third lolling on a bed.

Jonquet was a young man from Sainte-Chatte,
highly thought of among the Camisards. He had
been, it may be remembered, one of Cavalier's prin-
cipal officers. Villas was the son of a doctor in
Saint-Hippolyte ; he was still young, though he
had seen ten years' service, having been cornet in
England in the Galloway regiment. As to Ravanel,
he is sufficiently known to our readers to make
any words of introduction unnecessary.

De l'Estrade threw himself on the nearest of the
three, and, without using his sword, struck him with
his fist. Ravanel (for it was he) being half stunned,
fell back a step and asked the reason of this violent
assault ; while Barnier exclaimed, " Hold him fast,
M. de l'Estrade; it is Ravanel! " " Well, yes, I am
Ravanel," said the Camisard, " but that is no reason
for making so much noise." As he said these words
he made an attempt to reach his weapons, but de
l'Estrade and Barnier prevented him by throwing
themselves on him, and succeeded in knocking him
down after a fierce struggle. While this was going

654

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

on, his two companions were secured, and the three
were removed to the fort, where their guard never
left them night or day.

The Marquis of Sandricourt immediately sent oft*
a courier to the Duke of Berwick and M. de Baville
to inform them of the important capture he had
made. They were so delighted at the news that
they came next day to Nimes.

They found the town intensely excited, soldiers
with fixed bayonets at every street corner, all the
houses shut up, and the gates of' the town closed,
and no one allowed to leave without written permis-
sion from Sandricourt. On the 20th, and during
the following night, more than fifty persons were ar-
rested, amongst whom were Alison, the merchant
in whose house Ravanel, Villas, and Jonquet were
found; Delacroix, Alison's brother-in-law, who, on
hearing the noise of the struggle, had hidden on the
roof and was not discovered till next day; Jean
Lauze, who was accused of having prepared Rava-
nel's supper ; Lauze's mother, a widow ; Tourelle,
the maid-servant; the host of the Coupe d'Or, and
a preacher named La Jeunesse.

Great, however, as was the joy felt by the duke,
the marquis, and de Baville, it fell short of full per-
fection, for the most dangerous man among the
rebels was still at large ; in spite of every effort, Ca-
tinat's hiding-place had not till now been discovered.

655

CELEBRATED CRIMES

Accordingly, the duke issued a proclamation offer-
ing a reward of one hundred louis-d'or to whoever
would take Catinat, or cause him to be taken prison-
er, and granting a free pardon to anyone who had
sheltered him, provided that he was denounced be-
fore the house-to-house visitation which was about
to be made took place. After the search began, the
master of the house in which he might be found
would be hung at his own door, his family thrown
into prison, his good.: confiscated, his house razed
to the ground, without any form of trial whatever.
This proclamation had the effect expected by the
duke : whether the man in whose house Catinat was
concealed grew frightened and asked him to leave,
or whether Catinat thought his best course would
be to try and get away from the town, instead of
remaining shut up in it, he dressed himself one
morning in suitable clothes, and went to a barber's,
who shaved him, cut his hair, and made up his face
so as to give him as much the appearance of a noble-
man as possible; and then with wonderful assurance
he went out into the streets, and pulling his hat over
his eyes and holding a paper in his hand as if reading
it, he crossed the town to the gate of St. Antoine.
He was almost through when Charreau, the captain
of the guard, having his attention directed to Catinat
by a comrade to whom he was talking, stopped him,
suspecting he was trying to escape. Catinat asked

656

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

what he wanted with him, and Charreau replied
that if he would enter the guard-house he would
learn ; as under such circumstances any examination
was to be avoided, Catinat tried to force his way out ;
whereupon he was seized by Charreau and his
brother-officer, and Catinat seeing that resistance
would be not only useless but harmful, allowed him-
self to be taken to the guard- room.

He had been there about an hour without being
recognised by any of those who, drawn by curiosity,
came to look at him, when one of the visitors in go-
ing out said he bore a strong resemblance to Catinat ;
some children hearing these words, began to shout,
" Catinat is taken ! Catinat is taken ! " This cry
drew a large crowd to the guard-house, among
others a man whose name was Angle j as, who, look-
ing closely at the prisoner, recognised him and
called him by name.

Instantly the guard was doubled, and Catinat
searched : a psalm-book with a silver clasp and a
letter addressed to " M. Maurel, called Catinat,"
were found on him, leaving no doubt as to his
identity; while he himself, growing impatient, and
desiring to end all these investigations, acknowl-
edged that he was Catinat and no other.

He was at once taken to the palace, where the
Presidial Court was sitting, M. de Baville and the
president being occupied in trying Ravanel, Villas,

657

CELEBRATED CRIMES

and Jonquet. On hearing the news of this impor-
tant capture, the intendant, hardly daring to be-
lieve his ears, rose and went out to meet the prisoner,
in order to convince himself that it was really
Catinat.

From the Presidial Court he was brought before
the Duke of Berwick, who addressed several ques-
tions to him, which Catinat answered ; he then told
the duke he had something of importance to impart
to him and to him alone. The duke was not very
anxious for a tete-a-tete with Catinat; however,
having ordered his hands to be securely bound, and
telling Sandricourt not to go away, he consented
to hear what the prisoner had to say.

Catinat then, in the presence of the duke and
Sandricourt, proposed that an exchange of prisoners
should be made, the Marechal de Tallard, who was
a prisoner of war in England, being accepted in his
place. Catinat added that if this offer was not ac-
cepted, the marechal would meet the same treatment
from the English as might be meted out to him,
Catinat, in France. The duke, full of the aristocratic
ideas to which he was born, found the proposal in-
solent, and said, " If that is all you have to propose,
I can assure you that your hours are numbered."

Thereupon Catinat was promptly sent back to the
palace, where truly his trial did not occupy much
time. That of the three others was already finished,

658

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

and soon his was also at an end, and it only remained
to pronounce sentence on all four. Catinat and
Ravanel, as the most guilty, were condemned to be
burnt at the stake. Some of the councillors thought
Catinat should have been torn apart by four horses,
but the majority were for the stake — the agony
lasting longer, being more violent and more exqui-
site than in the other case.

Villars and Jonquet were sentenced to be broken
on the wheel alive — the only difference between them
being that Jonquet was to be taken while still living
and thrown into the fire lit round Catinat and Ra-
vanel. It was also ordered that the four condemned
men before their execution should be put to the
torture ordinary and extraordinary. Catinat, whose
temper was fierce, suffered with courage, but cursed
his torturers. Ravanel bore all the torments that
could be inflicted on him with a fortitude that was
more than human, so that the torturers were ex-
hausted before he was. Jonquet spoke little, and the
revelations he made were of slight importance.
Villas confessed that the conspirators had the in-
tention of carrying off the duke and M. de Baville
when they were out walking or driving, and he add-
ed that this plot had been hatched at the house of
a certain Boeton de Saint-Laurent-d'Aigozre, at
Milhaud, in Rouergue.

Meanwhile all this torturing and questioning had
659

CELEBRATED CRIMES

taken so much time that when the stake and the
scaffold were ready it was almost dark, so that the
duke put off the executions until the next day, in-
stead of carrying them out by torchlight. Brueys
says that this was done in order that the most dis-
affected amongst the fanatics should not be able
to say that it was not really Catinat, Ravanel, Villas,
and Jonquet who had been executed but some other
unknown men ; but it is more probable that the duke
and Baville were afraid of riots, as was proved by
their ordering the scaffold and the stake to be erect-
ed at the end of the Cours and opposite the glacis
of the fortress, so that the garrison might be at
hand in case of any disturbance.

Catinat was placed in a cell apart, and could be
heard cursing and complaining all night through.
Ravanel, Villas, and Jonquet were confined together,
and passed the night singing and praying.

The next day, the 22nd April, 1705, they were
taken from the prison and drawn to the place of
execution in two carts, being unable to walk, on
account of the severe torture to which they had been
subjected, and which had crushed the bones of their
legs. A single pile of wood had been prepared for
Catinat and Ravanel, who were to be burnt together ;
they were in one cart, and Villas and Jonquet, for
whom two wheels had been prepared, were in the
other.

660

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

The first operation was to bind Catinat and Rava-
nel back to back to the same stake, care being taken
to place Catinat with his face to windward, so that
his agony might last longer, and then the pile was lit
under Ravanel.

As had been foreseen, this precaution gave great
pleasure to those people who took delight in witness-
ing executions. The wind being rather high, blew
the flames away from Catinat, so that at first the
fire burnt his legs only — a circumstance which, the
author of the History of the Camisards tells us,
aroused Catinat's impatience. Ravanel, however,
bore everything to the end with the greatest heroism,
only pausing in his singing to address words of en-
couragement to his companion in suffering, whom
he could not see, but whose groans and curses he
could hear; he would then return to his psalms,
which he continued to sing until his voice was stifled
in the flames. Just as he expired, Jonquet was re-
moved from the wheel, and carried, his broken limbs
dangling, to the burning pile, on which he was
thrown. From the midst of the flames his voice was
heard saying, " Courage, Catinat ; we shall soon
meet in heaven." A few moments later, the stake,
being burnt through at the base, broke, and Catinat,
falling into the flames, was quickly suffocated. That
this accident had not been foreseen and prevented
by proper precautions caused great displeasure to

661

CELEBRATED CRIMES

the spectators, who found that the three-quarters
of an hour which the spectacle had lasted was much
too brief a time.

Villas lived three hours longer on his wheel, and
expired without having uttered a single complaint.

Two days later, there was another trial, at which
six persons were condemned to death and one to the
galleys ; these were the two Alisons, in whose house
Villas, Ravanel, and Jonquet had been found;
Alegre, who was accused of having concealed Cati-
nat, and of having been the Camisard treasurer;
Rougier, an armourer who was found guilty of
having repaired the muskets of the rebels ; Jean
Lauze, an innkeeper who had prepared meals for
Ravanel ; La Jeunesse, a preacher, convicted of hav-
ing preached sermons and sung psalms ; and young
Delacroix, brother-in-law to one of the Alisons. The
first three were condemned to be broken on the
wheel, their houses demolished, and their goods con-
fiscated. The next three were to be hanged. Jean
Delacroix, partly because of his youth, but more be-
cause of the revelations he made, was only sent to
the galleys. Several years later he was liberated and
returned to Aries, and was carried off by the plague
in 1720.

All these sentences were carried out with the ut-
most rigour.

Thus, as may be seen, the suppression of the revolt
662

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

proceeded apace; only two young Camisard chiefs
were still at large, both of whom had formerly
served under Cavalier and Catinat. The name of
the one was Brun and of the other Francezet. Al-
though neither of them possessed the genius and in-
fluence of Catinat and Ravanel, yet they were both
men to be feared, the one on account of his personal
strength, the other for his skill and agility. Indeed,
it was said of him that he never missed a shot, and
that one day being pursued by dragoons he had es-
caped by jumping over the Gardon at a spot where
it was twenty-two feet wide.

For a long time all search was in vain, but one
day the wife of a miller named Semenil came into
town ostensibly to buy provisions, but really to de-
nounce them as being concealed, with two other
Camisards, in her husband's house.

This information was received with an eager
gratitude, which showed the importance which- the
governor of Nimes attached to their capture. The
woman was promised a reward of fifty louis if they
were taken, and the Chevalier de la Valla, Grandi-
dier, and fifty Swiss, the major of the Saint-Sernin
regiment, a captain, and thirty dragoons, were sent
off to make the capture. When they were within a
quarter of a league of the mill, La Valla, who was
in command of the expedition, made the woman
give him all the necessary topographical information.

663

CELEBRATED CRIMES

Having learned that besides the door by which they
hoped to effect an entrance, the mill possessed only
one other, which opened on a bridge over the Vistre,
he despatched ten dragoons and five Swiss to occupy
this bridge, whilst he and the rest of the troops bore
down on the main entrance. As soon as the four
Camisards perceived the approach of the soldiers,
their first thought was to escape by the bridge, but
one of them having gone up to the roof to make sure
that the way was clear, came down exclaiming that
the bridge was occupied. On hearing this, the four
felt that they were lost, but nevertheless resolved to
defend themselves as valiantly and to sell their lives
as dearly as possible. As soon as the royals were
within musket range of the mill, four shots were
fired, and two dragoons, one Swiss, and one horse,
fell. M. de Valla thereupon ordered the troops to
charge at full gallop, but before the mill door was
reached three other shots were heard, and two more
men killed. Nevertheless, seeing they could not long
hold out against such numbers, Francezet gave the
signal for retreat, calling out, "Sauve qui pent! " at
the same instant he jumped out of a lattice window
twenty feet from the ground, followed by Brun.
Neither of them being hurt, both set off across
country, one trusting to his strength and the other
to his fleetness of foot. The two other Camisards,
who had tried to escape by the door, were captured.

664

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

The soldiers, horse and foot, being now free to
give all their attention to Brim and Francezet, a
wonderful race began; for the two fugitives, being
strong and active, seemed to play with their pur-
suers, stopping every now and then, when they had
gained sufficient headway, to shoot at the nearest
soldiers; when Francezet, proving worthy of his
reputation, never missed a single shot. Then, re-
suming their flight and loading their weapons as they
ran, they leaped rivers and ditches, taking advantage
of the less direct road which the troops were obliged
to follow, to stop and take breath, instead of making
for some cover where they might have found safety.
Two or three times Brun was on the point of being
caught, but each time the dragoon or Swiss who had
got up to him fell, struck by Francezet's unerring
bullet. The chase lasted four hours, during which
time five officers, thirty dragoons, and fifty Swiss
were baffled by two men, one of whom, Francezet,
was almost a boy, being only twenty years old.
Then the two Camisards, having exhausted their
ammunition, gave each other the name of a village
as a rendezvous, and each taking a different direc-
tion, bounded away with the lightness of a stag.
Francezet ran in the direction of Milhaud with such
rapidity that he gained on the dragoons, although
they put their horses at full speed. He was within
an inch of safety, when a peasant named La Bastide,

665

CELEBRATED CRIMES

who was hoeing in a field, whence he had watched
the contest with interest from the moment he had
first caught sight of it, seeing the fugitive make
for an opening in a wall, ran along at the foot of the
wall on the other side, and, just as Francezet dashed
through the opening like a flash of lightning, struck
him such a heavy blow on the head with his hoe that
the skull was laid open, and he fell bathed in blood.

The dragoons, who had seen in the distance what
had happened, now came up, and rescued Francezet
from the hands of his assailant, who had continued
to rain blows upon him, desiring to put an end to
him. The unconscious Camisard was carried to
Milhaud, where his wounds were bandaged, and
himself revived by means of strong spirits forced
into mouth and nostrils.

We now return to Brun. At first it seemed as if
he were more fortunate than his comrade ; for, meet-
ing with no obstacle, he was soon not only out of
reach, but out of sight of his enemies. He now,
however, felt broken by fatigue, and taught caution
by the treachery to which he had almost fallen a
victim, he dared not ask for an asylum, so, throwing
himself down in a ditch, he was soon fast asleep.
The dragoons, who had not given up the search,
presently came upon him, and falling on him as he
lay, overpowered him before he was well awake.

When both Camisards met before the governor,
666

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

Francezet replied to all interrogations that since the
death of brother Catinat his sole desire had been to
die a martyr's death like him ; while Brim said that
he was proud and happy to die in the cause of the
Lord along with such a brave comrade as Francezet.
This manner of defence led to the application of
the question both ordinary and extraordinary, and
to the stake; and our readers already know what
such a double sentence meant. Francezet and Brun
paid both penalties on the 30th of April, betraying
no secrets and uttering no complaints.

Boeton, who had been denounced by Villas when
under torture (and who thereby abridged his agony)
as the person in whose house the plot to carry off the
Duke of Berwick and de Baville had been arranged,
still remained to be dealt with.

He was moderate in his religious views, but firm
and full of faith; his principles resembled those of
the Quakers in that he refused to carry arms ; he
was, however, willing to aid the good cause by all
other means within his reach. He was at home
waiting, with that calm which perfect trust in God
gives, for the day to come which had been appointed
for the execution of the plan, when suddenly his
house was surrounded during the night by the roy-
als. Faithful to his principles, he offered no resist-
ance, but held out his hands to be bound. He was
taken in triumph to Nimes, and from there to the

667

CELEBRATED CRIMES

citadel of Montpellier. On the way he encountered
his wife and his son, who were going to the latter
town to intercede for him. When they met him,
they dismounted from their horse, for the mother
was riding on a pillion behind the son, and kneeling
on the highroad, asked for Boeton's blessing. Un-
feeling though the soldiers were, they yet permitted
their prisoner to stop an instant, while he, raising
his fettered hands to heaven, gave the double bless-
ing asked for. So touched was Baron Saint-Chatte
by the scene (be it remarked in passing that the
baron and Boeton were cousins by marriage) that
he permitted them to embrace one another, so for a
few moments they stood, the husband and father
clasped to the hearts of his dear ones ; then, on a
sign from Boeton, they tore themselves away, Boe-
ton commanding them to pray for M. de Saint-
Chatte, who had given them this consolation. As
he resumed his march the prisoner set them the
example by beginning to sing a psalm for the benefit
of M. de Saint-Chatte.

The next day, despite the intercession of his wife
and son, Boeton was condemned to torture both
ordinary and extraordinary, and then to be broken
on the wheel. On hearing this cruel sentence, he
said that he was ready to suffer every ill that God
might send him in order to prove the steadfastness
of his faith.

668

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

And indeed he endured his torture with such
firmness, that M. de Baville, who was present in
the hope of obtaining a confession, became more
impatient than the sufferer, and, forgetting his sacred
office, the judge struck and insulted the prisoner.
Upon this Boeton raised his eyes to> heaven and
cried, " Lord, Lord ! how long shall the wicked
triumph ? How long shall innocent blood be shed ?
How long wilt Thou not judge and avenge our blood
with cries to Thee? Remember Thy jealousy, O
Lord, and Thy loving-kindness of old ! " Then M.
de Baville withdrew, giving orders that he was to be
brought to the scaffold.

The scaffold was erected on the Esplanade : being,
as was usual when this sort of death was to be in-
flicted, a wooden platform five or six feet high, on
which was fastened flat a St. Andrew's cross,
formed of two beams of wood in the form of an X.
In each of the four arms two square pieces were
cut out to about half the depth of the beam, and
about a foot apart, so that when the victim
was bound on the cross the outstretched limbs
were easy to break by a blow at these points, having
no support beneath. Lastly, near the cross, at one
corner of the scaffold an upright wooden post was
fixed, on which was fastened horizontally a small
carriage wheel, as on a pivot, the projecting part of
the nave being sawn off to make it flat. On this bed

669

CELEBRATED CRIMES

of pain the sufferer was laid, so that the spectators
might enjoy the sight of his dying convulsions when,
the executioner having accomplished his part, the
turn of death arrived.

Boeton was carried to execution in a cart, and
drums were beaten that his exhortations might not
be heard. But above the roll of drums his voice
rose unfalteringly, as he admonished his brethren
to uphold their fellowship in Christ.

Half-way to the Esplanade a friend of the con-
demned man, who happened to be in the street, met
the procession, and fearing that he could not support
the sight, he took refuge in a shop. When Boeton
was opposite the door, he stopped the cart and asked
permission of the provost to speak to his friend.
The request being granted, he called him out, and
as he approached, bathed in tears, Boeton said,
" Why do you run away from me? Is it because
you see me covered with the tokens of Jesus Christ?
Why do you weep because He has graciously called
me to Himself, and all unworthy though I be, per-
mits me to seal my faith with my blood? " Then,
as the friend threw himself into Boeton's arms and
some signs of sympathetic emotion appeared among
the crowd, the procession was abruptly ordered to
move on; but though the leave-taking was thus
roughly broken short, no murmur passed the lips of
Boeton.

670

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

In turning out of the first street, the scaffold
came in sight; the condemned man raised his hands
towards heaven, and exclaimed in a cheerful voice,
while a smile lit up his face, " Courage, my soul ! I
see thy place of triumph, whence, released from
earthly bonds, thou shalt take flight to heaven."

When he got to the foot of the scaffold, it was
found he could not mount without assistance; for
his limbs, crushed in the terrible " boot," could no
longer sustain his weight. While they were prepar-
ing to carry him up, he exhorted and comforted the
Protestants, who were all weeping round him.
When he reached the platform he laid himself of his
own accord on the cross ; but hearing from the exe-
cutioner that he must first be undressed, he raised
himself again with a smile, so that the executioner's
assistant could remove his doublet and small-clothes.
As he wore no stockings, his legs being bandaged
the man also unwound these bandages, and rolled up
Boeton's shirts-sleeves to the elbow, and then ordered
him to lay himself again on the cross. Boeton did so
with unbroken calm. All his limbs were then bound
to the beams with cords at every joint; this accom-
plished, the assistant retired, and the executioner
came forward. He held in his hand a square bar
of iron, an inch and a half thick, three feet long,
and rounded at one end so as to form a handle.
When Boeton saw it he began singing a psalm, but

671

Dumas— Vol. 2—9

CELEBRATED CRIMES

almost immediately the melody was interrupted by
a cry : the executioner had broken a bone of Boeton's
right leg; but the singing was at once resumed, and
continued without interruption till each limb had
been broken in two places. Then the executioner
unbound the formless but still living body from the
cross, and while from its lips issued words of faith
in God he laid it on the wheel, bending it back on
the legs in such a manner that the heels and head
met; and never once during the completion of this
atrocious performance did the voice of the sufferer
cease to sound forth the praises of the Lord.

No execution till then had ever produced such an
effect on the crowd, so that Abbe Massilla, who was
present, seeing the general emotion, hastened to call
M. de Baville's attention to the fact that, far from
Boeton's death inspiring the Protestants with terror,
they were only encouraged to hold out, as was
proved by their tears, and the praises they lavished
on the dying man.

M. de Baville, recognising the truth of this obser-
vation, ordered that Boeton should be put out of
misery. This order being conveyed to the execu-
tioner, he approached the wheel to break in Boeton's
chest with one last blow ; but an archer standing on
the scaffold threw himself before the sufferer, say-
ing that the Huguenot had not yet suffered half
enough. At this, Boeton, who had heard the dread-

672

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

ful dispute going on beside him, interrupted his
prayers for an instant, and raising his head, which
hung down over the edge of the wheel, said,
" Friend, you think I suffer, and in truth I do ; but
He for whom I suffer is beside me and gives me
strength to bear everything joyfully." Just then
M. de Baville's order was repeated, and the archer,
no longer daring to interfere, allowed the execu-
tioner to approach. Then Boeton, seeing his last
moment had come, said, " My dear friends, may my
death be an example to you, to incite you to preserve
the gospel pure; bear faithful testimony that I died
in the religion of Christ and His holy apostles."
Hardly had these words passed his lips, than the
death-blow was given and his chest crushed; a few
inarticulate sounds, apparently prayers, were heard ;
the head fell back, the martyrdom was ended.

This execution ended the war in Languedoc. A
few imprudent preachers still delivered belated ser-
mons, to which the rebels listened trembling with
fear, and for which the preachers paid on the wheel
or gibbet. There were disturbances in Vivarais,
aroused by Daniel Billard, during which a few
Catholics were found murdered on the highway;
there were a few rights, as for instance at Sainte-
Pierre-Ville, where the Camisards, faithful to the
old traditions which had come to them from Cava-
lier, Catinat, and Ravenal, fought one to twenty,

673

CELEBRATED CRIMES

but they were all without importance ; they were only
the last quiverings of the dying civil strife, the last
shudderings of the earth when the eruption of the
volcano is over.

Even Cavalier understood that the end had come,
for he left Holland for England. There Queen
Anne distinguished him by a cordial welcome ; she
invited him to enter her service, an offer which he
accepted, and he was placed in command of a regi-
ment of refugees ; so that he actually received in
England the grade of colonel, which he had been
offered in France. At the battle of Almanza the
regiment commanded by Cavalier found itself op-
posed by a French regiment. The old enemies
recognised each other, and with a howl of rage,
without waiting for the word of command or exe-
cuting any military evolutions, they hurled them-
selves at each other with such fury that if we may
believe the Duke of Berwick, who was present, they
almost annihilated each other in the conflict. Cava-
lier, however, survived the slaughter, in which he
had performed his part with energy; and for his
courage was made general and governor of the
island of Jersey. He died at Chelsea in May 1740,
aged sixty years.

" I must confess," says Malesherbes, " that this
soldier, who without training became a great gen-
eral by means of his natural gifts; this Camisard,

674

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

who dared in the face of fierce troopers to punish a
crime similar to those by which the troopers existed ;
this rude peasant, who, admitted into the best society,
adopted its manners and gained its esteem and love ;
this man, who though accustomed to an adventurous
life, and who might justly have been puffed up by
success, had yet enough philosophy to lead for
thirty-five years a tranquil private existence, appears
to me to be one of the rarest characters to be met
with in the pages of history."

675

CHAPTER VI

AT length Louis xiv, bowed beneath the weight
, of a reign of sixty years, was summoned in
his turn to appear before God, from whom, as some
said, he looked for reward, and others for pardon.
But Nimes, that city with the heart of fire, was
quiet ; like the wounded who have lost the best part
of their blood, she thought only, with the egotism
of a convalescent, of being left in peace to regain the
strength which had become exhausted through the
terrible wounds which Montrevel and the Duke of
Berwick had dealt her. For sixty years petty ambi-
tion had taken the place of sublime self-sacrifice,
and disputes about etiquette succeeded mortal com-
bats. Then the philosophic era dawned, and the
sarcasms of the encyclopedists withered the mon-
archical intolerance of Louis xiv and Charles
ix. Thereupon the Protestants resumed their
preaching, baptized their children and buried their
dead, commerce flourished once more, and the two
religions lived side by side, one concealing under a
peaceful exterior the memory of its martyrs, the
other the memory of its triumphs. Such was the

676

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

mood on which the blood-red orb of the sun of '89
rose. The Protestants greeted it with cries of joy,
and indeed the promised liberty gave them back their
country, their civil rights, and the status of French
citizens.

Nevertheless, whatever were the hopes of one
party or the fears of the other, nothing had as yet
occurred to disturb the prevailing tranquillity, when,
on the 19th and 20th of July, 1789, a body of troops
was formed in the capital of La Gard which was to
bear the name of the Nimes Militia : the resolu-
tion which authorised this act was passed by the
citizens of the three orders sitting in the hall of
the palace.

It was as follows :—

" Article 10. The Nimes Legion shall consist of
a colonel, a lieutenant-colonel, a major, a lieutenant-
major, an adjutant, twenty-four captains, twenty-
four lieutenants, seventy-two sergeants, seventy-two
corporals, and eleven hundred and fifty-two privates
— in all, thirteen hundred and forty-nine men, form-
ing eighty companies.

"Article 11. The place of general assembly
shall be the Esplanade.

"Article 12. The eighty companies shall be at-
tached to the four quarters of the town mentioned
below — viz., place de l'H6tel-de-Ville, place de la

677

CELEBRATED CRIMES

Maison-Carree, place Saint-Jean, and place du
Chateau.

" Article 13. The companies as they are formed
by the permanent council shall each choose its own
captain, lieutenant, sergeants and corporals, and
from the date of his nomination the captain shall
have a seat on the permanent council."

The Nimes Militia was deliberately formed upon
certain lines which brought Catholics and Protest-
ants closely together as allies, with weapons in their
hands ; but they stood over a mine which was bound
to explode some day, as the slightest friction between
the two parties would produce a spark.

This state of concealed enmity lasted for nearly
a year, being augmented by political antipathies;
for the Protestants almost to a man were Republi-
cans, and the Catholics Royalists.

In the interval — that is to say, towards January,
1790 — a Catholic called Frangois Froment was en-
trusted by the Marquis de Foucault with the task of
raising, organising, and commanding a Royalist
party in the South. This we learn from one of his
own letters to the marquis, which was printed in
Paris in 1817. He describes his mode of action
in the following words : —

" It is not difficult to understand that being faith-
678

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

ful to my religion and my king, and shocked at the
seditious ideas which were disseminated on all sides,
I should try to inspire others with the same spirit
with which I myself was animated, so, during the
year 1789, I published several articles in which I
exposed the dangers which threatened altar and
throne. Struck with the justice of my criticisms, my
countrymen displayed the most zealous ardor in
their efforts to restore to the king the full exercise
of all his rights. Being anxious to take advantage
of this favourable state of feeling, and thinking that
it would be dangerous to hold communication with
the ministers of Louis xvi, who were watched by
the conspirators, I went secretly to Turin to solicit
the approbation and support of the French princes
there. At a consultation which was held just after
my arrival, I showed them that if they would arm
not only the partisans of the throne, but those of
the altar, and advance the interests of religion while
advancing the interests of royalty, it would be easy
to save both.

" My plan had for sole object to bind a party
together, and give it as far as I was able breadth
and stability.

" As the revolutionists placed their chief depend-
ence on force, I felt that they could only be met by
force ; for then as now I was convinced of this great
truth, that one strong passion can only be overcome

679

CELEBRATED CRIMES

by another stronger, and that therefore republican
fanaticism could only be driven out by religious
zeal.

" The princes being convinced of the correctness
of my reasoning and the efficacy of my remedies,
promised me the arms and supplies necessary to
stem the tide of faction, and the Comte d'Artois
gave me letters of recommendation to the chief
nobles in Upper Languedoc, that I might concert
measures with them; for the nobles in that part of
the country had assembled at Toulouse to deliberate
on the best way of inducing the other Orders to
unite in restoring to the Catholic religion its useful
influence, to the laws their power, and to the king
his liberty and authority.

" On my return to Languedoc, I went from town
to town in order to meet those gentlemen to whom
the Comte d'Artois had written, among whom were
many of the most influential Royalists and some
members of the States of Parliament. Having de-
cided on a general plan, and agreed on a method
of carrying on secret correspondence with eachi
other, I went to Nimes to wait for the assistance
which I had been promised from Turin, but which!
I never received. While waiting, I devoted myself to
awakening and sustaining the zeal of the inhabitants,
who at my suggestion, on the 20th April, passed a
resolution, which was signed by 5,000 inhabitants."

680

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

This resolution, which was at once a religions and
political manifesto, was drafted by Viala, M. Fro-
ment's secretary, and it lay for signature in his
office. Many of the Catholics signed it without even
reading it, for there was a short paragraph prefixed
to the document which contained all the information
they seemed to desire.

" Gentlemen, — The aspirations of a great num-
ber of our Catholic and patriotic fellow-citizens are
expressed in the resolution which we have the honour
of laying before you. They felt that under present
circumstances such a resolution was necessary, and
they feel convinced that if you give it your support,
as they do not doubt you will, knowing your patri-
otism, your religious zeal, and your love for our
august sovereign, it will conduce to the happiness
of France, the maintenance of the true religion, and
the rightful authority of the king.

" We are, gentlemen, with respect, your very
humble and obedient servants, the President
and Commissioners of the Catholic Assembly
of Nimes.
(Signed)
Froment, Commissioner Lapierre, President
Folacher, Levelut, Commissioner

Faure, Melchiond,

Robin, Vigne,

68 i

CELEBRATED CRIMES

At the same time a number of pamphlets, entitled
Pierre Roman to the Catholics of N'unes, were dis-
tributed to the people in the streets, containing
among other attacks on the Protestants the follow-
ing passages : —

" If the door to high positions and civil and mili-
tary honours were closed to the Protestants, and a
powerful tribunal established at Nimes to see that
this rule were strictly kept, you would soon see
Protestantism disappear.

" The Protestants demand to share all the privi-
leges which you enjoy, but if you grant them this,
their one thought will then be to dispossess you
entirely, and they will soon succeed.

"Like ungrateful vipers, who in a torpid state
were harmless, they will when warmed by your
benefits turn and kill you.

" They are your born enemies : your fathers only
escaped as by a miracle from their blood-stained
hands. Have you not often heard of the cruelties
practised on them? It was a slight thing when the
Protestants inflicted death alone, unaccompanied by
the most horrible tortures. Such as they were such
they are."

It may easily be imagined that such attacks soon
embittered minds already disposed to find new causes

682

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

for the old hatred, and besides the Catholics did not
long confine themselves to resolutions and pam-
phlets. Froment, who had already got himself
appointed Receiver-General of the Chapter and cap-
tain of one of the Catholic companies, insisted on
being present at the installation of the Town Coun-
cil, and brought his company with him armed with
pitchforks, in spite of the express prohibition of the
colonel of the legion. These forks were terrible
weapons, and had been fabricated in a particular
form for the Catholics of Nimes, Uzes, and Alais.
But Froment and his company paid no attention to
the prohibition, and this disobedience made a great
impression on the Protestants, who began to divine
the hostility of their adversaries, and it is very pos-
sible that if the new Town Council had not shut
their eyes to this act of insubordination, civil
war might have burst forth in Nimes that very
day.

The next day, at roll-call, a sergeant of another
company, one Allien, a cooper by trade, taunted one
of the men with having carried a pitchfork the day
before, in disobedience to orders. He replied that
the mayor had permitted him to carry it; Allien not
believing this, proposed to some of the men to go
with him to the mayor's and ask if it were true.
When they saw M. Marguerite, he said that he
had permitted nothing of the kind, and sent the

683

CELEBRATED CRIMES

delinquent to prison. Half an hour later, however,
he gave orders for his release.

As soon as he was free he set off to find his com-
rades, and told them what had occurred : they, con-
sidering that an insult to one was an insult to the
whole company, determined on having satisfaction
at once, so about eleven o'clock p.m. they went to
the cooper's house, carrying with them a gallows
and ropes ready greased. But quietly as they ap-
proached, Allien heard them, for his door being
bolted from within had to be forced. Looking out
of the window, he saw a great crowd, and as he
suspected that his life was in danger, he got out of
a back window into the yard and so escaped. The
militia being thus disappointed, wreaked their ven-
geance on some passing Protestants, whose unlucky
stars had led them that way; these they knocked
about, and even stabbed one of them three times
with a knife.

On the 22nd April, 1790, the royalists — that is to
say, the Catholics — assumed the white cockade, al-
though it was no longer the national emblem, and
on the 1 st May some of the militia who had planted
a maypole at the mayor's door were invited to lunch
with him. On the 2nd, the company which was on
guard at the mayor's official residence shouted sev-
eral times during the day, " Long live the king !
Up with the Cross and down with the black

684

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

throats!" (This was the name which they had
given to the Calvinists.) "Three cheers for the
white cockade! Before we are done, it will be red
with the blood of the Protestants ! " However, on
the 5th of May they ceased to wear it, replacing it
by a scarlet tuft, which in their patois they called
the red pouf, which was immediately adopted as the
Catholic emblem.

Each day as it passed brought forth fresh brawls
and provocations : libels were invented by the Capu-
chins, and spread abroad by three of their number.
Meetings were held every day, and at last became
so numerous that the town authorities called in the
aid of the militia-dragoons to disperse them. Now
these gatherings consisted chiefly of those tillers
of the soil who are called cebcts, from a Provengal
word cebe, which means " onion," and they could
easily be recognised as Catholics by their red
pouf, which they wore both in and out of uni-
form. On the other hand, the dragoons were
all Protestants.

However, these latter were so very gentle in their
admonitions, that although the two parties found
themselves, so to speak, constantly face to face and
armed, for several days the meetings were dispersed
without bloodshed. But this was exactly what the
cebcts did not want, so they began to insult the
dragoons and turn them into ridicule. Conse-

685

CELEBRATED CRIMES

quently, one morning they gathered together in
great numbers, mounted on asses, and with drawn
swords began to patrol the city.

At the same time, the lower classes, who were
nearly all Catholics, joined the burlesque patrols in
complaining loudly of the dragoons, some saying
that their horses had trampled on their children,
and others that they had frightened their wives.

The Protestants contradicted them, both parties
grew angry, swords were half drawn, when the
municipal authorities came on the scene, and instead
of apprehending the ringleaders, forbade the dra-
goons to patrol the town any more, ordering them
in future to do nothing more than send twenty men
every day to mount guard at the episcopal palace,
and to undertake no other duty except at the express
request of the Town Council. Although it was ex-
pected that the dragoons would revolt against such
a humiliation, they submitted, which was a great
disappointment to the cebcts, who had been longing
for a chance to indulge in new outrages. For all
that, the Catholics did not consider themselves
beaten; they felt sure of being able to find some
other way of driving their quarry to bay.

Sunday, the 13th of June, arrived. This day had
been selected by the Catholics for a great demon-
stration. Towards ten o'clock in the morning, some
companies wearing the red tuft, under pretext of

686

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

going to mass, marched through the city armed and
uttering threats. The few dragoons, on the other
hand, who were on guard at the palace, had not even
a sentinel posted, and had only five muskets in the
guard-house. At two o'clock p.m. there was a meet-
ing held in the Jacobin church, consisting almost
exclusively of militia wearing the red tuft. The
mayor pronounced a panegyric on those who wore
it, and was followed by Pierre Froment, who ex-
plained his mission in much the same words as those
quoted above. He then ordered a cask of wine to be
broached and distributed among the cebets, and told
them to walk about the streets in threes, and to dis-
arm all the dragoons whom they might meet away
from their post. About six o'clock in the evening
a red-tuft volunteer presented himself at the gate
of the palace, and ordered the porter to sweep the
courtyard, saying that the volunteers were going
to get up a ball for the dragoons. After this piece
of bravado he went away, and in a few moments a
note arrived, couched in the following terms : —

" The bishop's porter is warned to let no dragoon
on horse or on foot enter or leave the palace this
evening, on pain of death.
" 13th June 1790."

This note being brought to the lieutenant, he came
687

CELEBRATED CRIMES

out, and reminded the volunteer that nobody but
the town authorities could give orders to the serv-
ants at the palace. The volunteer gave an insolent
answer, the lieutenant advised him to go away
quietly, threatening if he did not to put him out by
force. This altercation attracted a great many of
the red-tufts from outside, while the dragoons, hear-
ing the noise, came down into the yard ; the quarrel
became more lively, stones were thrown, the call to
arms was heard, and in a few moments about forty
cebets, who were prowling around in the neighbour-
hood of the palace, rushed into the yard carrying
guns and swords. The lieutenant, who had only
about a dozen dragoons at his back, ordered the
bugle to sound, to recall those who had gone out;
the volunteers threw themselves upon the bugler,
dragged his instrument from his hands, and broke
it to pieces. Then several shots were fired by the
militia, the dragoons returned them, and a regular
battle began. The lieutenant soon saw that this
was no mere street row, but a deliberate rising
planned beforehand, and realising that very serious
consequences were likely to ensue, he sent a dragoon
to the town hall by a back way to give notice to the
authorities.

M. de Saint-Pons, major of the Nimes legion,
hearing some noise outside, opened his window, and
found the whole city in a tumult: people were run-

688

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

ning in every direction, and shouting as they ran
that the dragoons were being killed at the palace.
The major rushed out into the streets at once, gath-
ered together a dozen to fifteen patriotic citizens
without weapons, and hurried to the town hall.
There he found two officials of the town, and begged
them to go at once to the place de l'Eveche, escorted
by the first company, which was on guard at me
town hall. They agreed, and set off. On the way
several shots were fired at them, but no one was hit.
When they arrived at the square, the cebets fired a
volley at them with the same negative result. Up
the three principal streets which led to the palace
numerous red-tufts were hurrying ; the first company
took possession of the ends of the streets, and being
fired at returned the fire, repulsing the assailants
and clearing the square, with the loss of one of their
men, while several of the retreating cebets were
wounded.

While this struggle was going on at the palace,
the spirit of murder broke loose in the town.

At the gate of the Madeleine, M. de Jalabert's
house was broken into by the red-tufts ; the unfortu-
nate old man came out to meet them and asked what
they wanted. " Your life and the lives of all the
other dogs of Protestants ! " was the reply. Where-
upon he was seized and dragged through the streets,
fifteen insurgents hacking at him with their swords.

689

CELEBRATED CRIMES

At last he managed to escape from their hands, but
died two days later of his wounds.

Another old man named Astruc, who was bowed
beneath the weight of seventy-two years and whose
white hair covered his shoulders, was met as he was
on his way to the gate of Carmes. Being recognised
as a Protestant, he received five wounds from some
of the famous pitchforks belonging to the company
of Froment. He fell, but the assassins picked him
up, and throwing him into the moat, amused them-
selves by flinging stones at him, till one of them,
with more humanity than his fellows, put a bullet
through his head.

Three electors — M. Massador from near Beau-
caire, M. Vialla from the canton of Lasalle, and M.
Puech of the same place — were attacked by red-tufts
on their way home, and all three seriously wounded.
The captain who had been in command of the
detachment on guard at the Electoral Assembly was
returning to his quarters, accompanied by a sergeant
and three volunteers of his own company, when they
were stopped on the Petit-Cours by Froment, com-
monly called Damblay, who, pressing the barrel of
a pistol to the captain's breast, said, " Stand, you
rascal, and give up your arms." At the same time
the red-tufts, seizing the captain from behind by the
hair, pulled him down. Froment fired his pistol,
but missed. As he fell the captain drew his sword,

690

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

but it was torn from his hands, and he received a
cut from Froment's sword. Upon this the captain
made a great effort, and getting one of his arms
free, drew a pistol from his pocket, drove back his
assassins, fired at Froment, and missed him. One
of the men by his side was wounded and disarmed.

A patrol of the regiment of Guienne, attached to
which was M. Boudon, a dragoon officer, was pass-
ing the Calquieres. M. Boudon was attacked by a
band of red-tufts and his casque and his musket
carried off. Several shots were fired at him, but
none of them hit him ; the patrol surrounded him to
save him, but as he had received two bayonet
wounds, he desired revenge, and, breaking through
his protectors, darted forward to regain possession
of his musket, and was killed in a moment. One of
his fingers was cut off to get at a diamond ring which
he wore, his pockets were rifled of his purse and
watch, and his body was thrown into the moat.

Meantime the place-des-Recollets, the Cours, the
place-des-Carmes, the Grand-Rue, and rue de Notre-
Dame-de-1'Esplanade were filled with men armed
with guns, pitchforks, and swords. They had all
come from Froment's house, which overlooked that
part of Nimes called Les Calquieres, and the en-
trance to which was on the ramparts near the
Dominican Towers. The three leaders of the insur-
rection— Froment. Folacher, and Descombiez — took

691

CELEBRATED CRIMES

possession of these towers, which formed a part
of the old castle; from this position the Catholics
could sweep the entire quay of Les Calquieres and
the steps of the Salle de Spectacle with their guns,
and if it should turn out that the insurrection they
had excited did not attain the dimensions they ex-
pected nor gain such enthusiastic adherents, it would
be quite feasible for them to defend themselves in
such a position until relief came.

These arrangements were either the result of long
meditation or were the inspiration of some clever
strategist. The fact is that everything leads one to
believe that it was a plan which had been formed
with great care, for the rapidity with which all the
approaches to the fortress were lined with a double
row of militiamen all wearing the red tuft, the care
which was taken to place the most eager next the
barracks in which the park of artillery was sta-
tioned, and lastly, the manner in which the approach
to the citadel was barred by an entire company
(this being the only place where the patriots could
procure arms), combine to prove that this plan was
the result of much forethought; for, while it ap-
peared to be only defensive, it enabled the insur-
rectionists to attack without much danger; it caused
others to believe that they had been first attacked.
It was successfully carried out before the citizens
were armed, and until then only a part of the foot

692

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

guard and the twelve dragoons at the palace had
offered any resistance to the conspirators.

The red flag round which, in case of civil war, all
good citizens were expected to gather, and which
was kept at the town hall, and which should have
been brought out at the first shot, was now loudly
called for. The Abbe de Belmont, a canon, vicar-
general, and municipal official, was persuaded,
almost forced, to become standard-bearer, as being
the most likely on account of his ecclesiastical posi-
tion to awe rebels who had taken up arms in the
name of religion. The abbe himself gives the fol-
lowing account of the manner in which he fulfilled
this mandate : —

" About seven o'clock in the evening I was en-
gaged with MM. Porthier and Ferrand in auditing
accounts, when we heard a noise in the court, and
going out on the lobby, we saw several dragoons
coming upstairs, amongst whom was M. Paris.
They told us that fighting was going on in the place-
de-l'£veche, because some one or other had brought
a note to the porter ordering him to admit no more
dragoons to the palace on pain of death. At this
point I interrupted their story by asking why the
gates had not been closed and the bearer of the let-
ter arrested, but they replied to me that it had not
been possible ; thereupon MM. Ferrand and Ponthier
put on their scarfs and went out.

693

CELEBRATED CRIMES

" A few instants later several dragoons, amongst
whom I recognised none but MM. Lezan du Pontet,
Paris junior, and Boudon, accompanied by a great
number of the militia, entered, demanding that the
red flag should be brought out. They tried to open
the door of the council hall, and finding it locked,
they called upon me for the key. I asked that one of
the attendants should be sent for, but they were all
out; then I went to the hall-porter to see if he knew
where the key was. He said M. Berding had taken
it. Meanwhile, just as the volunteers were about to
force an entrance, someone ran up with the key.
The door was opened, and the red flag seized and
forced into my hands. I was then dragged down
into the courtyard, and from thence to the square.

" It was all in vain to tell them that they ought
first to get authority, and to represent to them that
I was no suitable standard-bearer on account of my
profession; but they would not listen to any objec-
tion, saying that my life depended upon my obedi-
ence, and that my profession would overawe the
disturbers of the public peace. So I went on, fol-
lowed by a detachment of the Guienne regiment,
part of the first company of the legion, and several
dragoons ; a young man with fixed bayonet kept
always at my side. Rage was depicted on the faces
of all those who accompanied me, and they indulged
in oaths and threats, to which I paid no attention.

694

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

In passing through the rue des Greffes they com-
plained that I did not carry the red flag high enough
nor unfurl it fully. When we got to the guard-
house at the Crown Gate, the guard turned out, and
the officer was commanded to follow us with his
men. He replied that he could not do that without
a written order from a member of the Town Coun-
cil. Thereupon those around me told me I must
write such an order, but I asked for a pen and ink ;
everybody was furious because I had none with me.
So offensive were the remarks indulged in by the
volunteers and some soldiers of the Guienne regi-
ment, and so threatening their gestures, that I grew
alarmed. I was hustled and even received several
blows; but at length M. de Boudon brought me
paper and a pen, and I wrote : ' I require the troops
to assist us to maintain order by force if necessary.'
Upon this, the officer consented to accompany us.
We had hardly taken half a dozen steps when they
all began to ask what had become of the order I had
just written, for it could not be found. They sur-
rounded me, saying that I had not written it at all,
and I was on the point of being trampled underfoot,
when a militiaman found it all crumpled up in his
pocket. The threats grew louder, and once more it
was because I did not carry the flag high enough,
everyone insisting that I was quite tall enough to
display it to better advantage.

695

CELEBRATED CRIMES

" However, at this point the militiamen with the
red tufts made their appearance, a few armed with
muskets but the greater number with swords ; shots
were exchanged, and the soldiers of the line and the
National Guard arranged themselves in battle order,
in a kind of recess, and desired me to go forward
• alone, which I refused to do, because I should have
been between two fires.

" Upon this, curses, threats, and blows reached
their height. I was dragged out before the troops
and struck with the butt ends of their muskets and
the flat of their swords until I advanced. One blow
that I received between the shoulders filled my mouth
with blood.

" All this time those of the opposite party were
coming nearer, and those with whom I was con-
tinued to yell at me to go on. I went on until
I met them. I besought them to retire, even throw-
ing myself at their feet. But all persuasion was
in vain; they swept me along with them, making
me enter by the Carmelite Gate, where they took
the flag from me and allowed me to enter the house
of a woman whose name I have never known. I
was spitting such a quantity of blood that she took
pity on me and brought me everything she could
think of as likely to do me good, and as soon as I
was a little revived I asked to be shown the way to
M. Ponthier's."

696

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

While Abbe de Belmont was carrying the red
flag the militia forced the Town Councillors to pro-
claim martial law. This had just been done when
word was brought that the first red flag had been
carried off, so M. Ferrand de Missol got out another,
and, followed by a considerable escort, took the
same road as his colleague, Abbe de Belmont. When
he arrived at the Calquieres, the red-tufts, who still
adorned the ramparts and towers, began to fire upon
the procession, and one of the militia was disabled ;
the escort retreated, but M. Ferrand advanced alone
to the Carmelite Gate, like M. de Belmont, and like
him, he too, was taken prisoner.

He was brought to the tower, where he found
Froment in a fury, declaring that the Council had
not kept its promise, having sent no relief, and hav-
ing delayed to give up the citadel to him.

The escort, however, had only retreated in order
to seek help; they rushed tumultuously to the bar-
racks, and finding the regiment of Guienne drawn
up in marching order in command of Lieutenant-
Colonel Bonne, they asked him to follow them, but
he refused without a written order from a Town
Councillor. Upon this an old corporal shouted,
" Brave soldiers of Guienne! the country is in dan-
ger, let us not delay to do our duty." " Yes, yes,"
cried the soldiers ; " let us march " The lieutenant-

697

CELEBRATED CRIMES

colonel no longer daring to resist, gave the word of
command, and they set off for the Esplanade.

As they came near the rampart with drums beat-
ing, the firing ceased, but as night was coming on
the new-comers did not dare to risk attacking, and
moreover the silence of the guns led them to think
that the rebels had given up their enterprise. Hav-
ing remained an hour in the square, the troops re-
turned to their quarters, and the patriots went to
pass the night in an inclosure on the Montpellier
road.

It almost seemed as if the Catholics were begin-
ning to recognise the futility of their plot; for al-
though they had appealed to fanaticism, forced the
Town Council to do their will, scattered gold lav-
ishly and made wine flow, out of eighteen companies
only three had joined them. " Fifteen companies,"
said M. Alquier in his report to the National Assem-
bly, " although they had adopted the red tuft, took
no part in the struggle, and did not add to the num-
ber of crimes committed either on that day or dur-
ing the days that followed. But although the
Catholics gained few partisans among their fellow-
citizens, they felt certain that people from the
country would rally to their aid ; but about ten
o'clock in the evening the rebel ringleaders, seeing
that no help arrived from that quarter either,
resolved to apply a stimulus to those without. Con-

698

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

sequently, Froment wrote the following letter to M.
de Bonzols, under-commanclant of the province of
Languedoc, who was living at Lunel : —

" Sir, — Up to the present all my demands, that
the Catholic companies should be put under arms,
have been of no avail. In spite of the order that
you gave at my request, the officials of the munici-
pality were of opinion that it would be more pru-
dent to delay the distribution of the muskets until
after the meeting of the Electoral Assembly. This
day the Protestant dragoons have attacked and
killed several of our unarmed Catholics, and you
may imagine the confusion and alarm that prevail
in the town. As a good citizen and a true patriot,
I entreat you to send an order to the regiment of
royal dragoons to repair at once to Nimes to restore
tranquillity and put down all who break the peace.
The Town Council does not meet, none of them
dares to leave his house; and if you receive no requi-
sition from them just now, it is because they go in
terror of their lives and fear to appear openly. Two
red flags have been carried about the streets, and
municipal officers without guards have been obliged
to take refuge in patriotic houses. Although I am
only a private citizen, I take the liberty of asking
for aid from you, knowing that the Protestants
have sent to La Vannage and La Gardonninque to

699

CELEBRATED CRIMES

ask you for reinforcements, and the arrival of
fanatics from these districts would expose all good
patriots to slaughter. Knowing as I do of your
kindness and justice, I have full trust that my prayer
will receive your favourable attention.

Froment, Captain of Company No. 39
"June 13, 1790, 11 o'c. p.m."

Unfortunately for the Catholic party, Dupre and
Lieutaud, to whom this letter was entrusted for
delivery, and for whom passports were made out as
being employed on business connected with the king
and the State, were arrested at Vehaud, and their
despatches laid before the Electoral Assembly.
Many other letters of the same kind were also inter-
cepted, and the red-tufts went about the town say-
ing that the Catholics of Nimes were being
massacred.

The priest of Courbessac, among others, was
shown a letter saying that a Capuchin monk had
been murdered, and that the Catholics were in need
of help. The agents who brought this letter to him
wanted him to put his name to it that they might
show it everywhere, but were met by a positive
refusal.

At Bouillargues and Manduel the tocsin was
sounded : the two villages joined forces, and with
weapons in their hands marched along the road from

700

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

Beaucaire to Nimes. At the bridge of Quart the
villagers of Redressan and Marguerite joined them.
Thus reinforced, they were able to bar the way
to all who passed and subject them to examination ;
if a man could show he was a Catholic, he was al-
lowed to proceed, but the Protestants were murdered
then and there. We may remind our readers that
the " Cadets de la Croix " pursued the same method
in 1704.

Meantime Descombiez, Froment, and Folacher
remained masters of the ramparts and the tower,
and when very early one morning their forces were
augmented by the insurgents from the villages
(about two hundred men), they took advantage of
their strength to force a way into the house of a
certain Therond, from which it was easy to effect
an entrance to the Jacobin monastery, and from
there to the tower adjoining, so that their line now
extended from the gate at the bridge of Calquieres
to that at the end of College Street. From daylight
to dusk all the patriots who came within range were
fired at whether they were armed or not.

On the 14th June, at four o'clock in the morning,
that part of the legion which was against the Cath-
olics gathered together in the square of the Esplan-
ade, where they were joined by the patriots from
the adjacent towns and villages, who came in in
small parties till they formed quite an army. At

701

CELEBRATED CRIMES

five a.m. M. de St. Pons, knowing that the windows
of the Capuchin monastery commanded the position
taken up by the patriots, went there with a company
and searched the house thoroughly, and also the
Amphitheatre, but found nothing suspicious in
either.

Immediately after, news was heard of the massa-
cres that had taken place during the night.

The country-house belonging to M. and Mme.
Noguies had been broken into, the furniture des-
troyed, the owners killed in their beds, and an old
man of seventy who lived with them cut to pieces
with a scythe.

A young fellow of fifteen, named Payre, in pass-
ing near the guard placed at the Pont des Ties, had
been asked by a red-tuft if he were Catholic or
Protestant. On his replying he was Protestant, he
was shot dead on the spot. " That was like killing
a lamb," said a comrade to the murderer. " Pooh ! "
said he, " I have taken a vow to kill four Protest-
ants, and he may pass for one."

M. Maigre, an old man of eighty-two, head of
one of the most respected families in the neighbour-
hood, tried to escape from his house along with his
son, his daughter-in-law, two grandchildren, and
two servants ; but the carriage was stopped, and
while the rebels were murdering him and his son,
the mother and her two children succeeded in escap-

702

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

ing to an inn, whither the assassins pursued them
Fortunately, however, the two fugitives having a
start, reached the inn a few minutes before their
pursuers, and the innkeeper had enough presence
of mind to conceal them and open the garden gate
by which he said they had escaped. The Catholics,
believing him, scattered over the country to look for
them, and during their absence the mother and
children were rescued by the mounted patrol.

The exasperation of the Protestants rose higher
and higher as reports of these murders came in one
by one, till at last the desire for vengeance could no
longer be repressed, and they were clamorously in-
sisting on being led against the ramparts and the
towers, when without warning a heavy fusillade
began from the windows and the clock tower of
the Capuchin monastery. M. Massin, a municipal
officer, was killed on the spot, a sapper fatally
wounded, and twenty-five of the National Guard
wounded more or less severely. The Protestants
immediately rushed towards the monastery in a dis-
orderly mass; but the superior, instead of ordering
the gates to be opened, appeared at a window above
the entrance, and addressing the assailants as the
vilest of the vile, asked them what they wanted at
the monastery. " We want to destroy it, we want
to pull it down till not one stone rests upon another,"
they replied. Upon this, the reverend father ordered

Dumas — Vol. 2—10

CELEBRATED CRIMES

the alarm bells to be rung, and from the mouths of
bronze issued the call for help; but before it could
arrive, the door was burst in with hatchets, and five
Capuchins and several of the militia who wore the
red tuft were killed, while all the other occupants of
the monastery ran away, taking refuge in the house
of a Protestant called Paulhan. During this attack
the church was respected; a man from Sommieres,
however, stole a pyx which he found in the sacristy,
but as soon as his comrades perceived this he was
arrested and sent to prison.

In the monastery itself, however, the doors were
broken in, the furniture smashed, the library and the
dispensary wrecked. The sacristy itself was not
spared, its presses being broken into, its chests de-
stroyed, and two monstrances broken; but nothing
further was touched. The storehouses and the small
cloth- factory connected with the monastery remained
intact, like the church.

But still the towers held out, and it was round
them that the real fighting took place, the resistance
offered from within being all the more obstinate
that the besieged expected relief from moment to
moment, not knowing that their letters had been
intercepted by the enemy. On every side the rattling
of shot was heard, from the Esplanade, from the
windows, from the roofs; but very little effect was
produced by the Protestants, for Descombiez had

704

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

told his men to put their caps with the red tufts on
the top of the wall, to attract the bullets, while they
fired from the side. Meantime the conspirators, in
order to get a better command of the besiegers, re-
opened a passage which had been long walled up
between the tower Du Poids and the tower of the
Dominicans. Descombiez, accompanied by thirty
men, came to the door of the monastery nearest the
fortifications and demanded the key of another door
which led to that part of the ramparts which was
opposite the place des Carmes, where the National
Guards were stationed. In spite of the remon-
strances of the monks, who saw that it would expose
them to great danger, the doors were opened, and
Froment hastened to occupy every post of vantage,
and the battle began in that quarter, too, becoming
fiercer as the conspirators remarked that every min-
ute brought the Protestants reinforcements from
Gardonninque and La Vaunage. The firing began
at ten o'clock in the morning, and at four o'clock
in the afternoon it was going on with unabated
fury.

At four o'clock, however, a servant carrying a
flag of truce appeared; he brought a letter from
Descombiez, Froment, and Folacher, who styled
themselves " Captains commanding the towers of
the Castle." It was couched in the following
words : —

705

CELEBRATED CRIMES

" To the Commandant of the troops of the line,
with the request that the contents be com-
municated to the militia stationed in the
Esplanade.

" Sir, — We have just been informed that you are
anxious for peace. We also desire it, and have never
done anything to break it. If those who have caused
the frightful confusion which at present prevails in
the city are willing to bring it to an end, we
offer to forget the past and to live with them as
brothers.

" We remain, with all the frankness and loyalty
of patriots and Frenchmen, your humble servants,
" The Captains of the Legion of Nimes, in
command of the towers of the Castle,
" Froment, Descombiez, Folacher
" Nimes, the 14th June 1790, 4.00 p.m."

On the receipt of this letter, the city herald was
sent to the towers to offer the rebels terms of capitu-
lation. The three " captains in command " came
out to discuss the terms with the commissioners of
the electoral body ; they were armed and followed by
a great number of adherents. However, as the
negotiators desired peace before all things, they pro-
posed that the three chiefs should surrender and
place themselves in the hands of the Electoral As-

706

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

sembly. This offer being refused, the electoral com-
missioners withdrew, and the rebels retired behind
their fortifications. About five o'clock in the even-
ing, just as the negotiations were broken off, M.
Aubry, an artillery captain who had been sent with
two hundred men to the depot of field artillery in
the country, returned with six pieces of ordnance,
determined to make a breach in the tower occupied
by the conspirators, and from which they were firing
in safety at the soldiers, who had no cover. At six
o'clock, the guns being mounted, their thunder be-
gan, first drowning the noise of the musketry and
then silencing it altogether ; for the cannon balls did
their work quickly, and before long the tower
threatened to fall. Thereupon the electoral com-
missioners ordered the firing to cease for a moment,
in the hope that now the danger had become so im-
minent the leaders would accept the conditions which
they had refused one hour before ; and not desiring
to drive them to desperation, the commissioners ad-
vanced again down College Street, preceded by a
bugler, and the captain; were once more summoned
to a parley. Froment and Descombiez came out to
meet them, and seeing the condition of the tower,
they agreed to lay down their arms and send them
to the palace, while they themselves would proceed
to the Electoral Assembly and place themselves un-
der its protection. These proposals being accepted,

707

CELEBRATED CRIMES

the commissioners waved their hats as a sign that
the treaty was concluded.

At that instant three shots were fired from the
ramparts, and cries of "Treachery! treachery!"
were heard on every side. The Catholic chiefs re-
turned to the tower, while the Protestants, believing
that the commissioners were being assassinated, re-
opened the cannonade ; but finding that it took too
long to complete the breach, ladders were brought,
the walls scaled, and the towers carried by assault.
Some of the Catholics were killed, the others gained
Froment's house, where, encouraged by him, they
tried to organise a resistance; but the assailants,
despite the oncoming darkness, attacked the place
with such fury that doors and windows were shat-
tered in an instant. Froment and his brother Pierre
tried to escape by a narrow staircase which led to
the roof, but before they reached it Pierre was
wounded in the hip and fell; but Froment reached
the roof, and sprang upon an adjacent housetop,
and climbing from roof to roof, reached the college,
and getting into it by a garret window, took refuge
in a large room which was always unoccupied at
night, being used during the day as a study.

Froment remained hidden there until eleven
o'clock. It being then completely dark, he got out
of the window, crossed the city, gained the open
country, and walking all night, concealed himself

708

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

during the day in the house of a Catholic. The next
night he set off again, and reached the coast, where
he embarked on board a vessel for Italy, in order
to report to those who had sent him the disastrous
result of his enterprise.

For three whole days the carnage lasted. The
Protestants losing all control over themselves, car-
ried on the work of death not only without pity but
with refined cruelty. More than five hundred Cath-
olics lost their lives before the 17th, when peace was
restored.

For a long time recriminations went on between
Catholics and Protestants, each party trying to fix
on the other the responsibility for those dreadful
three days ; but at last Frangois Froment put an end
to all doubt on the subject, by publishing a work
from which are set forth many of the details just
laid before our readers, as well as the reward he
met with when he reached Turin. At a meeting of
the French nobles in exile, a resolution was passed
in favour of M. Pierre Froment and his children,
inhabitants of Nimes.

We give a literal reproduction of this historic
document : —

" We the undersigned, French nobles, being con-
vinced that our Order was instituted that it might
become the prize of valour and the encouragement

709

CELEBRATED CRIMES

of virtue, do declare that the Chevalier de Guer
having given us proof of the devotion to their king
and the love of their country which have been dis-
played by M. Pierre Froment, receiver of the clergy,
and his three sons, Mathieu Froment citizen, Jacques
Froment canon, Francois Froment advocate, inhabi-
tants of Nimes, we shall henceforward regard them
and their descendants as nobles and worthy to enjoy
all the distinctions which belong to the true nobility.
Brave citizens, who perform such distinguished
actions as fighting for the restoration of the mon-
archy, ought to be considered as the equals of those
French chevaliers whose ancestors helped to found
it. Furthermore, we do declare that as soon as cir-
cumstances permit we shall join together to petition
His Majesty to grant to this family, so illustrious
through its virtue, all the honours and prerogatives
which belong to those born noble.

" We depute the Marquis de Meran, Comte d'Es-
pinchal, the Marquis d'Escars, Vicomte de Pons,
Chevalier de Guer, and the Marquis de la Feron-
niere to go to Mgr. le Comte d'Artois, Mgr. le Due
d'Angouleme, Mgr. le Due de Berry, Mgr. le Prince
de Conde, Mgr. le Due de Bourbon, and Mgr. le Due
d'Enghien, to beg them to put themselves at our
head when we request His Majesty to grant to MM.
Froment all the distinctions and advantages reserved
for the true nobility.

710

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

comte de choiseul
Beaumont d'Auti-

champ
Comte Francois

d'Escars
Chevalier de Vi-
vien
d'espinchal pere
Begon de la Rou-

ZIERE

De la Salle

Ulrich

Comte de Verac

Comte d'Auteuil

La Feuillide

Chevalier de Verne

D'Assac, Comte de

Fernay
Marquis de Pala-

rin
Chevalier de Gra-

illy

VlCOMTE DE MlLLE-
VILLE

Barthes DE Mar-

MORIERS

Comte Antoine de
Levis

Prince de la Tremoille
vlcomte de gouvello

MlRANT

Marquis de Gerant
Comte de Vintimille
Rebourgueil
Marquis de Gain-Mon-

TAGNAC

Dubois de La Feron-
niEre

Desouenne d'Empugene

D'Espinchal fils

De Pons

Abbe de Pons

Abbe de Menar

Chevalier de Bouglan

La Rouziere fils

Chevalier de Mille-
ville

Chevalier de Mar-
combe

Chevalier de Guer

Marquis d'Escars

De Caze

Marquis de Pierrevert

Baron Dubois-d'Escor-
dal

Comte de Lantivy
711

celebrated crimes

Comte Philippe de Defaure

Vaudreuil Comte d'Avesson

Comte Joseph de Baron de Corcelles

Maccarthy Marquis de Boulanger

Vicomte Robert de D'Auteuil fils

Maccarthy Comte de Lafare

"At Turin, 12th September 1790."

The nobility of Languedoc learned of the honours
conferred on their countryman, M. Froment, and
addressed the following letter to him: — ■

"Lorch, July 7, 1792
" Monsieur, — The nobles of Languedoc hasten
to confirm the resolution adopted in your favour by
the nobles assembled at Turin. They appreciate the
zeal and the courage which have distinguished your
conduct and that of your family; they have therefore
instructed us to assure you of the pleasure with
which they will welcome you among those nobles
who are under the orders of Marshal de Castries,
and that you are at liberty to repair to Lorch to
assume your proper rank in one of the companies.
" We have the honour to be, monsieur, your hum-
ble and obedient servants,

Comte de Toulouse- Marquis de La Jonquiere

Lautrec Marquis de Panot

Marquis du Lac Chevalier de Bedos "

712

CHAPTER VII

THE Protestants, as we have said, hailed the
golden dawn of the revolution with delight;
then came the Terror, which struck at all without
distinction of creed. A hundred and thirty-eight
heads fell on the scaffold, condemned by the revolu-
tionary tribunal of the Gard. Ninety-one of those
executed were Catholic, and forty-seven Protestants,
so that it looked as if the executioners in their desire
for impartiality had taken a census of the population.
Then came the Consulate : the Protestants being
mostly tradesmen and manufacturers, were there-
fore richer than the Catholics, and had more to lose ;
they seemed to see more chance of stability in this
form of government than in those preceding it, and
it was evident that it had a more powerful genius
at its head, so they rallied round it with confidence
and sincerity. The Empire followed, with its in-
clination to absolutism, its Continental system, and
its increased taxation ; and the Protestants drew
back somewhat, for it was towards them who had
hoped so much from him that Napoleon in not keep-
ing the promises of Bonaparte was most perjured.

713

CELEBRATED CRIMES

The first Restoration, therefore, was greeted at
Nimes with a universal shout of joy; and a super-
ficial observer might have thought that all trace of
the old religious leaven had disappeared. In fact,
for seventeen years the two faiths had lived side
by side in perfect peace and mutual good-will; for
seventeen years men met either for business or for
social purposes without inquiring about each other's
religion, so that Nimes on the surface might have
been held up as an example of union and fraternity.

When Monsieur arrived at Nimes, his guard of
honour was drawn from the city guard, which still
retained its organisation of 1812, being composed
of citizens without distinction of creed. Six deco-
rations were conferred on it — three on Catholics,
and three on Protestants. At the same time, M.
Daunant, M. Olivier Desmonts, and M. de Seine, the
first the mayor, the second the president of the Con-
sistory, and the third a member of the Prefecture,
all three belonging to the Reformed religion, re-
ceived the same favour.

Such impartiality on the part of Monsieur almost
betrayed a preference, and this offended the Catho-
lics. They muttered to one another that in the past
there had been a time when the fathers of those who
had just been decorated by the hand of the
prince had fought against his faithful adherents.
Hardly had Monsieur left the town, therefore, than

714

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

it became apparent that perfect harmony no longer
existed.

The Catholics had a favorite cafe, which during
the whole time the Empire lasted was also frequent-
ed by Protestants without a single dispute caused
by the difference of religion ever arising. But from
this time forth the Catholics began to hold them-
selves aloof from the Protestants; the latter per-
ceiving this, gave up the cafe by degrees to the
Catholics, being determined to keep the peace what-
ever it might cost, and went to a cafe which had
been just opened under the sign of the " Isle of
Elba." The name was enough to cause them to be
regarded as Bonapartists, and as to Bonapartists the
cry " Long live the king! " was supposed to be of-
fensive, they were saluted at every turn with these
words, pronounced in a tone which became every
day more menacing. At first they gave back the
same cry, " Long live the king! " but then they were
called cowards who expressed with their lips a senti-
ment which did not come from their hearts. Feeling
that this accusation had some truth in it, they were
silent, but then they were accused of hating the
royal family, till at length the cry which at first had
issued from full hearts in a universal chorus grew
to be nothing but an expression of party hatred, so
that on the 21st February, 181 5, M. Daunant the
mayor, by a decree, prohibited the public from using

715

CELEBRATED CRIMES

it, as it had become a means of exciting sedition.
Party feeling had reached this height at Nimes
when, on the 4th March, the news of the landing
of Napoleon arrived.

Deep as was the impression produced, the city
remained calm, but somewhat sullen ; in any case, the
report wanted confirmation. Napoleon, who knew
of the sympathy that the mountaineers felt for him,
went at once into the Alps, and his eagle did not as
yet take so high a flight that it could be seen hover-
ing above Mount Geneve.

On the 12th, the Due d'Angouleme arrived: two
proclamations calling the citizens to arms signalised
his presence. The citizens answered the call with
true Southern ardour: an army was formed;
but although Protestants and Catholics presented
themselves for enrolment with equal alacrity, the
Protestants were excluded, the Catholics denying the
right of defending their legitimate sovereign to any
but themselves.

This species of selection apparently went on with-
out the knowledge of the Due d'Angouleme. Dur-
ing his stay in Nimes he received Protestants and
Catholics with equal cordiality, and they set at his
table side by side. It happened once, on a Friday,
at dinner, that a Protestant general took fish and a
Catholic general helped himself to fowl. The duke
being amused, drew attention to this anomaly,

716

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

whereupon the Catholic general replied, " Better
more chicken and less treason." This attack was so
direct, that although the Protestant general felt that
as far as he was concerned it had no point, he rose
from table and left the room. It was the brave
General Gilly who was treated in this cruel
manner.

Meanwhile the news became more disastrous every
day : Napoleon was moving about with the rapidity
of his eagles. On the 24th March it was reported
in Nimes that Louis xvin had left Paris on the 19th
and that Napoleon had entered on the 20th. This
report was traced to its source, and it was found
that it had been spread abroad by M. Vincent de
Saint-Laurent, a councillor of the Prefecture and
one of the most respected men in Nimes. He was
summoned at once before the authorities and asked
whence he had this information ; he replied, " From
a letter received from M. Bragueres," producing the
letter. But convincing as was this proof, it availed
him nothing: he was escorted from brigade to bri-
gade till he reached the Chateau d'If. The Protes-
tants sided with M. Vincent de Saint-Laurent, the
Catholics took the part of the authorities who were
persecuting him, and thus the two factions which
had been so long quiescent found themselves once
more face to face, and their dormant hatred awoke
to new life. For the moment, however, there was

717

CELEBRATED CRIMES

no explosion, although the city was at fever heat,
and everyone felt that a crisis was at hand.

On the 22nd March two battalions of Catholic
volunteers had already been enlisted at Nimes, and
had formed part of the eighteen hundred men who
were sent to Saint-Esprit. Just before their de-
parture fleurs-de-lys had been distributed amongst
them, made of red cloth; this change in the colour
of the monarchical emblem was a threat which the
Protestants well understood.

The prince left Nimes in due course, taking with
him the rest of the royal volunteers, and leaving the
Protestants practically masters of Nimes during the
absence of so many Catholics. The city, however,
continued calm, and when provocations began,
strange to say they came from the weaker party.

On the 27th March six men met in a barn, dined
together, and then agreed to make the circuit of the
town. These men were Jacques Dupont, who later
acquired such terrible celebrity under the name of
Trestaillons, Truphemy the butcher, Morenet the
dog shearer, Hours, Servant, and Gilles. They got
opposite the cafe " Isle of Elba," the name of which
indicated the opinion of those who frequented it.
This cafe was faced by a guard-house which was
occupied by soldiers of the 67th Regiment. The six
made a halt, and in the most insulting tones raised
the cry of " Long live the king ! " The disturbance

718

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

that ensued was so slight that we only mention it in
order to g. - ''an idea of the tolerance of the Protes-
tants, and to bring upon the stage the men mentioned
above, who were three months later to play such a
terrible part.

On April ist the mayor summoned to a meeting
at his official residence the municipal council, the
members of all the variously constituted adminis-
trative bodies in Nimes, the officers of the city
guards, the priests, the Protestant pastors, and the
chief citizens. At this meeting, M. Trinquelague,
advocate of the Royal Courts, read a powerful ad-
dress, expressing the love of the citizens for their
king and country, and exhorting them to union and
peace. This address was unanimously adopted and
signed by all present, and amongst the signatures
were those of the principal Protestants of Nimes.
But this was not all : the next day it was printed and
published, and copies sent to all the communes in
the department over which the white flag still floated.
And all this happened, as we have said, on April
2nd, eleven days after Napoleon's return to Paris.

The same day word arrived that the Imperial
Government had been proclaimed at Montpellier.

The next day, April 3rd, all the officers on half-
pay assembled at the fountain to be reviewed by a
general and a sub-inspector, and as these officers
were late, the order of the day issued by General

719

CELEBRATED CRIMES

Ambert, recognising the Imperial Government, was
produced and passed along the ranks, causing such
excitement that one of the officers drew his sword
and cried, " Long live the emperor! " These magic
words were re-echoed from every side, and they all
hastened to the barracks of the 63rd Regiment,
which at once joined the officers. At this juncture
Marshal Pelissier arrived, and did not appear to
welcome the turn things had taken ; he made an ef-
fort to restrain the enthusiasm of the crowd, but
was immediately arrested by his own soldiers. The
officers repaired in a body to the headquarters of
General Briche, commandant of the garrison, and
asked for the official copy of the order of the day.
He replied that he had received none, and when
questioned as to which side he was on he refused to
answer. The officers upon this took him prisoner.
Just as they had consigned him to the barracks for
confinement, a post-office official arrived bringing a
despatch from General Ambert. Learning that Gen-
eral Briche was a prisoner, the messenger carried
his packet to the colonel of the 63rd Regiment, who
was the next in seniority after the general. In open-
ing it, it was found to contain the order of the day.
Instantly the colonel ordered the generale to
sound: the town guards assumed arms, the troops
left the barracks and formed in line, the National
Guards in the rear of the regular troops, and when

720

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

they were all thus drawn up, the order of the day
was read; it was then snatched out of the colonel's
hands, printed on large placards, and in less time
than seemed possible it was posted up in every street
and at every street corner ; the tricolour replaced the
white cockade, everyone being obliged to wear the
national emblem or none at all, the city was pro-
claimed in a state of seige, and the military officers
formed a vigilance committee and a police force.

While the Due d'Angouleme had been staying at
Nimes, General Gilly had applied for a command in
that prince's army, but in spite of all his efforts ob-
tained nothing; so immediately after the dinner at
which he was insulted he had withdrawn to Aver-
nede, his place in the country. He was awoke in the
night of the 5th-6th April by a courier from General
Ambert, who sent to offer him the command of the
2nd Subdivision. On the 6th, General Gilly went to
Nimes, and sent in his acceptance, whereby the de-
partments of the Gard, the Lozere, and Ardeche
passed under his authority.

Next day General Gilly received further despatches
from General Ambert, from which he learned that
it was the general's intention, in order to avoid the
danger of a civil war, to separate the Due d'An-
gouleme's army from the departments which sympa-
thised with the royal cause ; he had therefore decided
to make Pont-Saint-Esprit a military post, and had

721

CELEBRATED CRIMES

ordered the ioth Regiment of mounted chasseurs,
the 13th artillery, and a battalion of infantry to
move towards this point by forced marches. These
troops were commanded by Colonel Saint-Laurent,
but General Ambert was anxious that if it could be
done without danger, General Gilly should leave
Nimes, taking with him part of the 63rd Regiment,
and joining the other forces under the command of
Colonel Saint-Laurent, should assume the chief com-
mand. As the city was quite tranquil, General Gilly
did not hesitate to obey this order : he set out from
Nimes on the 7th, passed the night at Uzes, and
finding that town abandoned by the magistrates, de-
clared it in a state of siege, lest disturbances should
arise in the absence of authority. Having placed
M. de Bresson in command, a retired chief of bat-
talion who was born in Uzes, and who usually lived
there, he continued his march on the morning of the
8th.

Beyond the village of Conans, General Gilly met
an orderly sent to him by Colonel Saint-Laurent to
inform him that he, the colonel, had occupied Pont-
Saint-Esprit, and that the Due d'Angouleme, finding
himself thus caught between two fires, had just sent
General d'Aultanne, chief of staff in the royal
army, to him, to enter into negotiations for a sur-
render. Upon this, General Gilly quickened his ad-
vance, and on reaching Pont-Saint-Esprit found

722

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

General d'Aultanne and Colonel Saint-Laurent con-
ferring together at the Hotel de la Poste.

As Colonel Saint-Laurent had received his in-
structions directly from the commander-in-chief,
several points relating to the capitulation had already-
been agreed upon; of these General Gilly slightly
altered some, and approved of the others, and the
same day the following convention was signed : —

" Convention concluded between General Gilly
and Baron de Damas :

" S.A.R. Mgr. le Due d'Angouleme, Commander-
in-Chief of the royal army in the South, and Baron
de Gilly, General of Division and Commander-in-
Chief of the first corps of the Imperial Army, being
most anxiously desirous to prevent any further ef-
fusion of French blood, have given plenary powers
to arrange the terms of a convention to S.A.R. M.
le Baron de Damas, Field-Marshal and Under-Chief
of Staff, and General de Gilly and Adjutant Lefevre,
Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, and Chief of the
Staff of the first Army Corps; who, having shown
each other their respective credentials, have agreed
on the following terms : —

" Art. i. The royal army is to be disbanded ; and
the National Guards which are enrolled in it, under
whatever name they may have been levied, will return
to their homes, after laying down their arms. Safe-

723

CELEBRATED CRIMES

conducts will be provided, and the general of division
commanding-in-chief guarantees that they shall
never be molested for anything they may have said
or done in connection with the events preceding the
present convention.

" The officers will retain their swords; the troops
of the line who form part of this army will repair
to such garrisons as may be assigned to them.

" Art. 2. The general officers, superior staff of-
ficers and others of all branches of the service, and
the chiefs and subordinates of the administrative
departments, of whose names a list will be furnished
to the general-in-chief, will retire to their homes and
there await the orders of His Majesty the Emperor.

" Art. 3. Officers of every rank who wish to re-
sign their commissions are competent to do so. They
will receive passports for their homes.

" Art. 4. The funds of the army and the lists
of the paymaster-general will be handed over at
once to commissioners appointed for that purpose
by the commander-in-chief.

" Art. 5. The above articles apply to the corps
commanded by Mgr. le Due d'Angouleme in person,
and also to those who act separately but under his
orders, and as forming part of the royal army of the
South.

" Art. 6. H.R.H. will post to Cette, where the
vessels necessary for him and his suite will be wait-

724

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

ing to take him wherever he may desire. Detach-
ments of the Imperial Army will be placed at all the
relays on the road to protect His Royal Highness
during the journey, and the honours due to his rank
will be everywhere paid him, if he so desire.

" Art. 7. All the officers and other persons of
His Royal Highness' suite who desire to follow him
will be permitted to do so, and they may either em-
bark with him at once or later, should their private
affairs need time for arrangement.

" Art. 8. The present treaty will be kept secret
until His Royal Highness have quitted the limits of
the empire.

" Executed in duplicate and agreed upon between
the above-mentioned plenipotentiaries the 8th day
of April in the year 181 5, with the approval of the
general commanding-in-chief, and signed,

" At the headquarters at Pont-Saint-Esprit on the
day and year above written :

(Signed) Lefevre

Adjutant and Chief of Staff of the
First Corps of the Imperial Army
of the South
(Signed) Baron de Damas

Field-Marshal and Under-Chief of
Staff

" The present convention is approved of by the
725

CELEBRATED CRIMES

General of Division Commanding-in-Chief the Im-
perial Army of the South.

(Signed) Gilly "

After some discussion between General Gilly and
General Grouchy, the capitulation was carried into
effect. On the 16th April, at eight o'clock in the
morning, the Due d'Angouleme arrived at Cette,
and went on board the Swedish vessel Scandinavia,
which, taking advantage of a favourable wind, set
sail the same day.

Early in the morning of the 9th an officer of high
rank had been sent to La Palud to issue safe-con-
ducts to the troops, who according to Article 1 of the
capitulation were to return home "after laying down
their arms." But during the preceding day and
night some of the royal volunteers had evaded this
article by withdrawing with their anus and baggage.
As this infraction of the terms led to serious conse-
quences, we propose, in order to establish the fact,
to cite the depositions of three royal volunteers who
afterwards gave evidence.

" On leaving the army of the Due d'Angouleme
after the capitulation," says Jean Saunier, " I went
with my officers and my corps to Saint-Jean-des-
Anels. From there we marched towards Uzes. In
the middle of a forest, near a village, the name of

726

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

which I have forgotten, our General M. de Vogue
told us that we were all to return to our own homes.
We asked him where we should deposit the flag. Just
then Commandant Magne detached it from the staff
and put it in his pocket. We then asked the general
where we should deposit our arms; he replied, that
we had better keep them, as we should probably find
use for them before long, and also to take our am-
munition with us, to ensure our safety on the
road.

" From that time on we all did what we thought
best : sixty- four of us remained together, and took a
guide to enable us to avoid Uzes."

Nicholas Marie, labourer, deposed as follows : —

" On leaving the army of the Due d'Angouleme
after the capitulation, I went with my officers and
my corps to Saint-Jean-des-Anels. We marched
towards Uzes, but when we were in the middle of a
forest, near a village the name of which I have for-
gotten, our general, M. de Vogue, told us that we
were to go to our own homes as soon as we liked.
We saw Commandant Magne loose the flag from
its staff, roll it up and put it in his pocket. We asked
the general what we were to do with our anus; he
replied that we were to keep both them and our am-
munition, as zee should find them of use. Upon this5

727

CELEBRATED CRIMES

our chiefs left us, and we all got away as best we
could."

" After the capitulation of the Due d'Angouleme
I found myself," deposes Paul Lambert, lace-maker
of Nimes, " in one of several detachments under the
orders of Commandant Magne and General Vogue.
In the middle of a forest near a village, the name of
which I do not know, M. de Vogue and the other
officers told us we might go home. The flag was
folded up, and M. Magne put it in his pocket. We
asked our chiefs what we were to do with our arms.
M. de Vogue told us that we had better keep them,
as we should need them before very long; and in any
case it would be well to have them with us on the
road, lest anything should happen to us."

The three depositions are too much alike to leave
room for any doubt. The royal volunteers contra-
vened Article i of the convention.

Being thus abandoned by their chiefs, without gen-
eral and without flag, M. de Vogue's soldiers asked
no further counsel of anyone but themselves, and, as
one of them has already told us, sixty-four of them
joined together to hire a guide who was to show them
how to get by Uzes without going through it, for they
were afraid of meeting with insult there. The guide
brought them as far as Montarem without anyone

728

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

opposing their passage or taking notice of their
arms.

Suddenly a coachman named Bertrand, a confi-
dential servant of Abbe Rafin, former Grand- Vicar
of Alais, and of Baroness Arnaud-Wurmeser (for
the abbe administered the estate of Aureillac in his
own name and that of the baroness), galloped into
the village of Arpaillargues, which was almost en-
tirely Protestant and consequently Napoleonist, an-
nouncing that the miqitelets (for after one hundred
and ten years the old name given to the royal troops
was revived) were on the way from Montarem, pil«
laging houses, murdering magistrates, outraging
women, and then throwing them out of the windows.
It is easy to understand the effect of such a story.
The people gathered together in groups; the mayor
and his assistant being absent, Bertrand was taken
before a certain Boucarut, who on receiving his re-
port ordered the generate to be beaten and the tocsin
to be rung. Then the consternation became general :
the men seized their muskets, the women and chil-
dren stones and pitchforks, and everyone made ready
to face a danger which only existed in the imagi-
nation of Bertrand, for there was not a shadow of
foundation for the story he had told.

While the village was in this state of feverish
excitement the royal volunteers came in sight.
Hardly were they seen than the cry, " There they

729

CELEBRATED CRIMES

are ! There they are ! " arose on all sides, the streets
were barricaded with carts, the tocsin rang out with
redoubled frenzy, and everyone capable of carrying
arms rushed to the entrance of the village.

The volunteers, hearing the uproar and seeing the
hostile preparations, halted, and to show that their
intentions were peaceful, put their shakos on their
musket stocks and waved them above their heads,
shouting that no one need fear, for they would do
no harm to anyone. But alarmed as they were by
the terrible stories told by Bertrand, the villagers
shouted back that they could not trust to such as-
surances, and that if they wanted to pass through
the village they must first give up their weapons. It
may easily be imagined that men who had broken the
convention in order to keep their weapons were not
likely to give them up to these villagers — in fact,
they obstinately refused to let them out of their
hands, and by doing so increased the suspicions of
the people. A parley of a very excited character
took place between M. Fournier for the royal guards
and M. Boucarut, who was chosen spokesman by the
villagers. From words they came to deeds : the
miquelets tried to force their way through, some
shots were fired, and two miquelets, Calvet and
Fournier, fell. The others scattered, followed by a
lively discharge, and two more miquelets were slight-
ly wounded. Thereupon they all took to flight

730

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

through the fields on either side of the road, pursued
for a short distance by the villagers, but soon re-
turned to examine the two wounded men, and a re-
port was drawn up by Antoine Robin, advocate and
magistrate of the canton of Uzes, of the events just
related.

This accident was almost the only one of its kind
which happened during the Hundred Days : the two
parties remained face to face, threatening but self-
controlled. But let there be no mistake : there was
no peace ; they were simply awaiting a declaration of
war. When the calm was broken, it was from
Marseilles that the provocation came. We shall ef-
face ourselves for a time and let an eye-witness
speak, who being a Catholic cannot be suspected of
partiality for the Protestants.

" I was living in Marseilles at the time of Napo-
leon's landing, and I was a witness of the impression
which the news produced upon everyone. There
was one great cry ; the enthusiasm was universal ; the
National Guard wanted to join him to the last man,
but Marshal Massena did not give his consent until
it was too late, for Napoleon had already reached
the mountains, and was moving with such swiftness
that it would have been impossible to overtake him.
Next we heard of his triumphal entry into Lyons,
and of his arrival in Paris during the night. Mar-

73l

CELEBRATED CRIMES

seilles submitted like the rest of France; Prince
d'Essling was recalled to the capital, and Marshal
Brune, who commanded the 6th corps of observa-
tion, fixed his headquarters at Marseilles.

" With quite incomprehensible fickleness, Mar-
seilles, whose name during the Terror had been, as
one may say, the symbol of the most advanced opin-
ions, had become almost entirely Royalist in 1815.
Nevertheless, its inhabitants saw without a murmur
the tricolour flag after a year's absence floating once
more above the walls. No arbitrary interference
on the part of the authorities, no threats, and no
brawling between the citizens and the soldiers,
troubled the peace of old Phocea ; no revolution ever
took place with such quietness and facility.

" It must, however, be said, that Marshal Brune
was just the man to accomplish such a transforma-
tion without friction; in him the frankness and
loyalty of an old soldier were combined with other
qualities more solid than brilliant. Tacitus in hand,
he looked on at modern revolutions as they passed,
and only interfered when the voice of his country
called him to her defence. The conqueror of Har-
lem and Bakkun had been for four years forgotten
in retirement, or rather in exile, when the same
voice which sent him away recalled him, and at the
summons Cincinnatus left his plough and grasped
his weapons. Physically he was at this period a

732

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

man of about fifty-five, with a frank and open face
framed by large whiskers ; his head was bald except
for a little grizzled hair at the temples; he was
tall and active, and had a remarkably soldierly
bearing.

" I had been brought into contact with him by a
report which one of my friends and I had drawn up
on the opinions of the people of the South, and of
which he had asked to have a copy. In a long con-
versation with us, he discussed the subject with the
impartiality of a man who brings an open mind to
a debate, and he invited us to come often to see him.
We enjoyed ourselves so much in his society that
we got into the habit of going to his house nearly
every evening.

" On his arrival in the South an old calumny
which had formerly pursued him again made its ap-
pearance, quite re-juvenated by its long sleep. A
writer whose name I have forgotten, in describing
the Massacres of the Second of September and the
death of the unfortunate Princesse de Lamballe,
had said, ' Some people thought they recognised in
the man who carried her head impaled on a pike,
General Brune in disguise,' and this accusation,
which had been caught up with eagerness under the
Consulate, still followed him so relentlessly in 1815,
that hardly a day passed without his receiving an
anonymous letter, threatening him with the same

733

CELEBRATED CRIMES

fate which had overtaken the princess. One even-
ing while we were with him such a letter arrived,
and having read it he passed it on to us. It was as

follows : —

" ' Wretch, — We are acquainted with all your
crimes, for which you will soon receive the chastise-
ment you well deserve. It was you who during the
revolution brought about the death of the Princesse
de Lamballe ; it was you who carried her head on a
pike, but your head will be impaled on something
longer. If you are so rash as to be present at the
review of the Allies it is all up with you, and your
head will be stuck on the steeple of the Accoules.
Farewell, Scoundrel ! '

" We advised him to trace this calumny to its
source, and then to take signal vengeance on the
authors. He paused an instant to reflect, and then
lit the letter at a candle, and looking at it thought-
fully as it turned to ashes in his hand, said, ' Venge-
ance! Yes, perhaps by seeking that I could silence
the authors of these slanders and preserve the public
tranquillity which they constantly imperil. But I
prefer persuasion to severity. My principle is, that
it is better to bring men's heads back to a right way
of thinking than to cut them off, and to be regarded
as a weak man rather than as a bloodthirsty one.'

734

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

" The essence of Marshal Brune's character was
contained in these words.

" Public tranquillity was indeed twice endangered
at Marseilles during the Hundred Days, and both
times in the same manner. The garrison officers
used to gather at a coffee-house in the place Necker,
and sing songs suggested by passing events. This
caused an attack by the townspeople, who broke the
windows by throwing stones, some of which struck
the officers. These rushed out, crying, ' To arms ! '
The townspeople were not slow to respond, but the
commandant ordered the generate to beat, sent out
numerous patrols, and succeeded in calming the
excitement and restoring quietness without any
casualties.

" The day of the Champ du Mai orders for a
general illumination were given, and that the tri-
colour flag should be displayed from the windows.
The greater number of the inhabitants paid no at-
tention to the desires of the authorities, and the
officers being annoyed at this neglect, indulged in
reprehensible excesses, which, however, resulted in
nothing more serious than some broken windows
belonging to houses which had not illuminated,
and in some of the householders being forced to
illuminate according to order.

" In Marseilles as in the rest of France, people
began to despair of the success of the royal cause,

735

Dumas-^Vol. 2—11

CELEBRATED CRIMES

and those who represented this cause, who were
very numerous at Marseilles, gave up annoying the
military and seemed to resign themselves to their
fate. Marshal Brune had left the city to take up
his post on the frontier, without any of the dangers
with which he was threatened having come across
his path.

" The 25th of June arrived, and the news of the
successes obtained at Fleurus and at Ligny seemed
to justify the hopes of the soldiers, when, in the mid-
dle of the day, muttered reports began to spread in
the town, the distant reverberations of the cannon
of Waterloo. The silence of the leaders, the un-
easiness of the soldiers, the delight of the Royalists,
foretold the outbreak of a new struggle, the results
of which it was easy to anticipate. About four
o'clock in the afternoon, a man, who had probably
got earlier information than his fellow-townspeople,
tore off his tricoloured cockade and trampled it
under foot, crying, "Long live the king!" The
angry soldiers seized him and were about to drag
him to the guard-house, but the National Guards
prevented them, and their interference led to a
fight. Shouts were heard on all sides, a large ring
was formed round the soldiers, a few musket shots
heard, others answered, three or four men fell, and
lay there weltering in their blood. Out of this con-
fused uproar the word "Waterloo" emerged distinct;

736

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

and with this unfamiliar name pronounced for
the first time in the resounding voice of history, the
news of the defeat of the French army and the
triumph of the Allies spread apace. Then General
Verdier, who held the chief command in the absence
of Marshal Brune, tried to harangue the people,
but his voice was drowned by the shouts of the mob
who had gathered round a coffee-house where stood
a bust of the emperor, which they insisted should be
given up to them. Verdier, hoping to calm what he
took to be a simple street row, gave orders that the
bust should be brought out, and this concession, so
significant on the part of a general commanding in
the emperor's name, convinced the crowd that his
cause was lost. The fury of the populace grew
greater now that they felt that they could indulge
it with impunity; they ran to the Town Hall, and
tearing down and burning the tricoloured, raised the
white flag. The roll of the generate, the clang of the
tocsin were heard, the neighbouring villages poured
in their populations and increased the throng in the
streets ; single acts of violence began to occur, whole-
sale massacres were approaching. I had arrived in
the town with my friend M at the very begin-
ning of the tumult, so we had seen the dangerous
agitation and excitement grow under our eyes, but
we were still ignorant of its true cause, when, in the
rue de Noailles, we met an acauaintance, who, al-

737

CELEBRATED CRIMES

though his political opinions did not coincide with
ours, had always shown himself very friendly to us.
'Well,' said I, 'what news?' 'Good for me and
bad for you,' he answered ; ' I advise you to go away
at once.' Surprised and somewhat alarmed at these
words, we begged him to explain. ' Listen,' said he ;
' there are going to be riots in the town ; it is well
known that you used to go to Brune's nearly every
evening, and that you are in consequence no favour-
ite with your neighbours ; seek safety in the country.'
I addressed some further question to him, but, turn-
ing his back on me, he left me without another word.

" M and I were still looking at each other in

stupefaction, when the increasing uproar aroused
us to a sense that if we desired to follow the advice
just given we had not a moment to lose. We hast-
ened to my house, which was situated in the Allees
de Meilhan. My wife was just going out, but I
stopped her.

" ' We are not safe here,' I said; ' we must get
away into the country.'

" ' But where can we go? '

" ' Wherever luck takes us. Let us start.'

" She was going to put on her bonnet, but I told
her to leave it behind ; for it was most important that
no one should think we suspected anything, but were
merely going for a stroll. This precaution saved
us, for we learned the next day that if our intention

738

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

to fly had been suspected we should have been
stopped.

" We walked at random, while behind us we heard
musket shots from every part of the town. We met
a company of soldiers who were hurrying to the re-
lief of their comrades, but heard later that they had
not been allowed to pass the gate.

" We recollected an old officer of our acquaint-
ance who had quitted the service and withdrawn
from the world some years before, and had taken a
place in the country near the village of Saint-Just;
we directed our course towards his house.

" ' Captain,' said I to him, ' they are murdering
each other in the town, we are pursued and without
asylum, so we come to you.' ' That's right, my
children,' said he; 'come in and welcome. I have
never meddled with political affairs, and no one can
have anything against me. No one will think of
looking for you here.'

" The captain had friends in the town, who, one
after another, reached his house, and brought us
news of all that went on during that dreadful day.
Many soldiers had been killed, and the Mamelukes
had been annihilated. A negress who had been in
the service of these unfortunates had been taken on
the quay. ' Cry " Long live the king ! " ' shouted the
mob. ' No,' she replied. ' To Napoleon I owe my
daily bread ; long live Napoleon ! ' A bayonet-thrust

739

CELEBRATED CRIMES

in the abdomen was the answer. 'Villains!' said
she, covering the wound with her hand to keep back
the protruding entrails. ' Long live Napoleon ! ' A
push sent her into the water ; she sank, but rose again
to the surface, and waving her hand, she cried for
the last time, ' Long live Napoleon ! ' a bullet shot
putting an end to her life.

" Several of the townspeople had met with shock-
ing deaths. For instance, M. Angles, a neighbour
of mine, an old man and no inconsiderable scholar,
having unfortunately, when at the palace some days
before, given utterance before witnesses to the
sentiment that Napoleon was a great man, learned
that for this crime he was about to be arrested.
Yielding to the prayers of his family, he disguised
himself, and, getting into a waggon, set off to seek
safety in the country. He was, however, recognised
and brought a prisoner to the place du Chapitre,
where, after being buffeted about and insulted for
an hour by the populace, he was at last murdered.

"It may easily be imagined that although no one
came to disturb us we did not sleep much that night.
The ladies rested on sofas or in arm-chairs without

undressing, while our host, M and myself took

turns in guarding the door, gun in hand.

" As soon as it was light we consulted what
course we should take : I was of the opinion that we
ought to try to reach Aix by unfrequented paths;

740

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

having friends there, we should be able to procure a
carriage and get to Nimes, where my family lived.
But my wife did not agree with me. ' I must go
back to town for our things,' said she ; ' we have
no clothes but those on our backs. Let us send to
the village to ask if Marseilles is quieter to-day than
yesterday.' So we sent off a messenger.

" The news he brought back was favourable ; order
was completely restored. I could not quite believe
this, and still refused to let my wife return to the
town unless I accompanied her. But in that every-
one was against me : my presence would give rise to
dangers which without me had no existence. Where
were the miscreants cowardly enough to murder a
woman of eighteen who belonged to no party and
had never injured anyone? As for me, my opinions
were well known. Moreover, my mother-in-law
offered to accompany her daughter, and both joined
in persuading me that there was no danger. At last
I was forced to consent, but only on one condition.
' I cannot say,' I observed, ' whether there is any
foundation for the reassuring tidings we have heard,
but of one thing you may be sure : it is now seven
o'clock in the morning, you can get to Marseilles in
an hour, pack your trunks in another hour, and re-
turn in a third ; let us allow one hour more for un-
foreseen delays. If you are not back by eleven o'clock,
I shall believe something has happened, and take

741

CELEBRATED CRIMES

steps accordingly.' 'Very well,' said my wife; 'if
I am not back by then, you may think me dead, and
do whatever you think best.' And so she and her
mother left me.

" An hour later, quite different news came to
hand. Fugitives, seeking like ourselves safety in
the country, told us that the rioting, far from ceas-
ing, had increased; the streets were encumbered
with corpses, and two people had been murdered
with unheard-of cruelty.

" An old man named Bessieres, who had led a
simple and blameless life, and whose only crime was
that he had served under the Usurper, anticipating
that under existing circumstances this would be re-
garded as a capital crime, made his will, which was
afterwards found among his papers. It began with
the following words : —

" ' As it is possible that during this revolution I
may meet my death, as a partisan of Napoleon, al-
though I have never loved him, I give and be-
queath/ etc., etc.

" The day before, his brother-in-law, knowing he
had private enemies, had come to the house and
spent the night trying to induce him to flee, but all
in vain. But the next morning, his house being at-
tacked, he yielded, and tried to escape by the back
door. He was stopped by some of the National
Guard, and placed himself under their protection.

742

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

They took him to the Cours St. Louis, where, being
hustled by the crowd and very ineffectually defended
by the Guards, he tried to enter the Cafe Mercantier,
but the door was shut in his face. Being broken by
fatigue, breathless, and covered with dust and sweat,
he threw himself on one of the benches placed
against the wall, outside the house. Here he was
wounded by a musket bullet, but not killed. At the
sight of his blood shrieks of joy were heard, and
then a young man with a pistol in each hand forced
his way through the throng and killed the old man
by two shots fired point blank in his face.

" Another still more atrocious murder took place
in the course of the same morning. A father and
son, bound back to back, were delivered over to the
tender mercies of the mob. Stoned and beaten and
covered with each other's blood, for two long hours
their death-agony endured, and all the while those
who could not get near enough to strike were danc-
ing round them.

" Our time passed listening to such stories ; sud-
denly I saw a friend running towards the house. I
went to meet him. He was so pale that I hardly
dared to question him. He came from the city, and
had been at my house to see what had become of me.
There was no one in it, but across the door lay two
corpses wrapped in a blood-stained sheet which he
had not dared to lift.

743

CELEBRATED CRIMES

" At these terrible words nothing could hold me

back. I set off for Marseilles. M , who would

not consent to let me return alone, accompanied me.
In passing through the village of Saint-Just we en-
countered a crowd of armed peasants in the main
street who appeared to belong to the free companies.
Although this circumstance was rather alarming, it
would have been dangerous to turn back, so we
continued our way as if we were not in the least
uneasy. They examined our bearing and our dress
narrowly, and then exchanged some sentences in a
low voice, of which we only caught the word aus-
tamers. This was the name by which the Bona-
partists were called by the peasants, and means ' eat-
ers of chestnuts,' this article of food being brought
from Corsica to France. However, we were not
molested in any way, for as we were going towards
the city they did not think we could be fugitives.
A hundred yards beyond the village we came up with
a crowd of peasants, who were, like us, on the way
to Marseilles. It was plain to see that they had just
been pillaging some country house, for they were
laden with rich stuffs, chandeliers and jewels. It

proved to be that of M. R , inspector of reviews.

Several carried muskets. I pointed out to my com-
panion a stain of blood on the trousers of one of the
men, who began to laugh when he saw what we were
looking at. Two hundred yards outside the city I

744

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

met a woman who had formerly been a servant in
my house. She was very much astonished to see
me, and said, ' Go away at once ; the massacre is
horrible, much worse than yesterday.'

" ' But my wife,' I cried, ' do you know anything
about her ? '

" ' No, sir,' she replied ; ' I was going to knock at
the door, but some people asked me in a threatening
manner if I could tell them where the friend of that
rascal Brune was, as they zvere going to take away
his appetite for bread. So take my advice,' she con-
tinued, ' and go back to where you came from.'

"This advice was the last I could make up my
mind to follow, so we went on, but found a strong
guard at the gate, and saw that it would be impos-
sible to get through without being recognised. At
the same time, the cries and the reports of firearms
from within were coming nearer ; it would therefore
have been to court certain death to advance, so we
retraced our steps. In passing again through the
village of Saint- Just we met once more our armed
peasants. But this time they burst out into threats
on seeing us, shouting, ' Let us kill them ! Let us kill
them!' Instead of running away, we approached
them, assuring them that we were Royalists. Our
coolness was so convincing that we got through safe
and sound.

" On getting back to the captain's I threw myself

745

CELEBRATED CRIMES

on the sofa, quite overcome by the thought that only
that morning my wife had been beside me under my
protection, and that I had let her go back to the town
to a cruel and inevitable death. I felt as if my heart
would break, and nothing that our host and my
friend could say gave me the slightest comfort. I
was like a madman, unconscious of everything round
me.

" M went out to try to pick up some news,

but in an instant we heard him running back, and he
dashed into the room, calling out —

" ' They are coming ! There they are ! '

" ' Who are coming ? ' we asked.

" ' The assassins ! '

" My first feeling, I confess, was one of joy. I
pounced upon a pair of double-barrelled pistols, re-
solved not to let myself be slaughtered like a sheep.
Through the window I could see some men climb-
ing over the wall and getting down into the garden.
We had just sufficient time to escape by a back
staircase which led to a door, through which we
passed, shutting it behind us. We found ourselves
on a road, at the other side of which was a vine-
yard. We crossed the road and crept under the
vines, which completely concealed us.

" As we learned later, the captain's house had
been denounced as a Bonapartist nest, and the as-
sassins had hoped to take it by surprise ; and, indeed,

746

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

if they had come a little sooner we had been lost,
for before we had been five minutes in our hiding-
place the murderers rushed out on the road, looking
for us in every direction, without the slightest sus-
picion that we were not six yards distant. Though
they did not see us I could see them, and I held my
pistols ready cocked, quite determined to kill the
first who came near. However, in a short time they
went away.

" As soon as they were out of hearing we began
to consider our situation and weigh our chances.
There was no use in going back to the captain's, for
he was no longer there, having also succeeded in get-
ting away. If we were to wander about the country
we should be recognised as fugitives, and the fate
that awaited us as such was at that moment
brought home to us, for a few yards away we sud-
denly heard the shrieks of a man who was being
murdered. They were the first cries of agony I had
ever heard, and for a few moments, I confess, I was
frozen with terror. But soon a violent reaction
took place within me, and I felt that it would be
better to march straight to meet peril than to await
its coming, and although I knew the danger of try-
ing to go through Saint-Just again, I resolved to
risk it, and to get to Marseilles at all costs. So, turn-
ing to M , I said —

" ' You can remain here without danger until the
747

CELEBRATED CRIMES

evening, but I am going to Marseilles at once; for
I cannot endure this uncertainty any longer. If I
find Saint-Just clear, I shall come back and rejoin
you, but if not I shall get away as best I can alone.'

" Knowing the danger that we were running, and
how little chance there was that we should ever see
each other again, he held out his hand to me, but I
threw myself into his arms and gave him a last em-
brace.

" I started at once : when I reached Saint-Just I
found the freebooters still there; so I walked up to
them, trolling a melody, but one of them seized me
by the collar and two others took aim at me with
their muskets.

"If ever in my life I shouted ' Long live the king ! '
with less enthusiasm than the cry deserves, it was
then : to assume a rollicking air, to laugh with cool
carelessness when there is nothing between you and
death but the more or less strong pressure of a high-
wayman's finger on the trigger of a musket, is no
easy task ; but all this I accomplished, and once more
got through the village with a whole skin indeed,
but with the unalterable resolution to blow my
brains out rather than again try such an experiment.

" Having now a village behind me which I had
vowed never to re-enter, and there being no road
available by which I could hope to get round Mar-
seilles, the only course open to me was to make my

748

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

way into the city. At that moment this was a thing
of difficulty, for many small bodies of troops, wear-
ing the white cockade, infested the approaches. I
soon perceived that the danger of getting in was as
great as ever, so I determined to walk up and down
till night, hoping the darkness would come to my
aid; but one of the patrols soon gave me to under-
stand that my prowling about had aroused suspicion,
and ordered me either to go on to the city, in which
by all accounts there was small chance of safety for
me, or back to the village, where certain death await-
ed me. A happy inspiration flashed across my mind,
I would get some refreshment, and seeing an inn
near by, I went in and ordered a mug of beer, sitting
down near the window, faintly hoping that before
the necessity for a final decision arrived, someone
who knew me would pass by. After waiting half an
hour, I did indeed see an acquaintance — no other

than M , whom I had left in the vineyard. I

beckoned him, and he joined me. He told me that,
being too impatient to await my return, he had soon
made up his mind to follow me, and by joining a
band of pillagers was lucky enough to get safely
through Saint-Just. We consulted together as to
what we had better do next, and having applied to
our host, found he could supply us with a trusty
messenger, who would carry the news of our where-
abouts to my brother-in-law. After an anxious wait

749

CELEBRATED CRIMES

of three hours, we saw him coming. I was about to
run out to meet him, but M held me back, by-
pointing out the danger of such a step ; so we sat still,
our eyes fixed on the approaching figure. But when
my brother-in-law reached the inn, I could restrain
my impatience no longer, but rushing out of the
room met him on the stairs.

" ' My wife? ' I cried. ' Have you seen my wife?'
She is at my house,' was the reply, and with a
cry of joy I threw myself into his arms.

" My wife, who had been threatened, insulted,
and roughly treated because of my opinions, had in-
deed found safety at my brother-in-law's.

" Night was coming on. My brother-in-law, who
wore the uniform of the National Guard, which was
at that moment a safeguard, took us each by an arm,
and we passed the barrier without anyone asking
us who we were. Choosing quiet streets, we reached
his house unmolested , but in fact the whole city was
quiet, for the carnage was practically at an end.

" My wife safe! this thought filled my heart with
joy almost too great to bear.

" Her adventures were the following : —

" My wife and her mother had gone to our house,
as agreed upon, to pack our trunks. As they left
their rooms, having accomplished their task, they
found the landlady waiting on the staircase, who at
once overwhelmed my wife with a torrent of abuse.

750

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

The husband, who until then had known nothing of
their tenant's return, hearing the noise, came out of
his room, and, seizing his wife by the arm, pulled her
in and shut the door. She, however, rushed to the
window, and just as my wife and her mother reached
the street, shouted to a free band who were on guard
across the way, ' Fire ! they are Bonapartists ! ' For-
tunately the men, more merciful than the woman,
seeing two ladies quite alone, did not hinder their
passage, and as just then my brother-in-law came
by, whose opinions were well known and whose uni-
form was respected, he was allowed to take them
under his protection and conduct them to his house
in safety.

" A young man, employed at the Prefecture, who
had called at my house the day before, I having
promised to help him in editing the Journal des Bou-
ches-du-Rhone, was not so lucky. His occupation
and his visit to me laid him under suspicion of pos-
sessing dangerous opinions, and his friends urged
him to fly ; but it was too late. He was attacked at
the corner of the rue de Noailles, and fell wounded
by a stab from a dagger. Happily, however, he ulti-
mately recovered.

" The whole day was passed in the commission of
deeds still more bloody than those of the day before;
the sewers ran blood, and every hundred yards a
dead body was to be met. But this sight, instead of

751

CELEBRATED CRIMES

satiating the thirst for blood of the assassins, only
seemed to awaken a general feeling of gaiety. In
the evening the streets resounded with song and
roundelay, and for many a year to come that which
we looked back on as ' the day of the massacre'
lived in the memory of the Royalists as ' the day of
the farce.'

" As we felt we could not live any longer in the
midst of such scenes, even though, as far as we were
concerned, all danger was over, we set out for
Nimes that same evening, having been offered the
use of a carriage.

" Nothing worthy of note happened on the road
to Orgon, which we reached next day; but the iso-
lated detachments of troops which we passed from
time to time reminded us that the tranquillity was
nowhere perfect. As we neared the town we saw
three men going about arm in arm ; this friendliness
seemed strange to us after our recent experiences,
for one of them wore a white cockade, the second
a tricolour, and the third none at all, and yet they
went about on the most brotherly terms, each await-
ing under a different banner the outcome of events.
Their wisdom impressed me much, and feeling I had
nothing to fear from such philosophers, I went up
to them and questioned them, and they explained
their hopes to me with the greatest innocence, and
above all, their firm determination to belong to what-

752

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

ever party got the upper hand. As we drove into
Orgon we saw at a glance that the whole town was
simmering with excitement. Everybody's face ex-
pressed anxiety. A man who, we were told, was
the mayor, was haranguing a group. As everyone
was listening with the greatest attention, we
drew near and asked them the cause of the
excitement.

" ' Gentlemen,' said he, ' you ought to know the
news : the king is in his capital, and we have once
more hoisted the white flag, and there has not been
a single dispute to mar the tranquillity of the day;
one party has triumphed without violence, and the
other has submitted with resignation. But I have
just learned that a band of vagabonds, numbering
about three hundred, have assembled on the bridge
over the Durance, and are preparing to raid our lit-
tle town to-night, intending by pillage or extortion
to get at what we possess. I have a few guns left
which I am about to distribute, and each man will
watch over the safety of all.'

" Although he had not enough arms to go round,
he offered to supply us, but as I had my double-
barrelled pistols I did not deprive him of his weap-
ons. I made the ladies go to bed, and, sitting at
their door, tried to sleep as well as I could, a pistol
in each hand. But at every instant the noise of a
false alarm sounded through the town, and when

753

CELEBRATED CRIMES

day dawned my only consolation was that no one
else in Orgon had slept any better than I.

" The next day we continued our journey to Ta-
rascon, where new excitements awaited us. As we
got near the town we heard the tocsin clanging and
drums beating the gcneralc. We were getting so
accustomed to the uproar that we were not very
much astonished. However, when we got in we
asked what was going on, and we were told that
twelve thousand troops from Nimes had marched
on Beaucaire and laid it waste with fire and sword.
I insinuated that twelve thousand men was rather
a large number for one town to furnish, but was told
that that included troops from the Gardonninque
and the Cevennes. Nimes still clung to the tricolour,
but Beaucaire had hoisted the white flag, and it was
for the purpose of pulling it down and scattering the
Royalists who were assembling in numbers at Beau-
caire that Nimes had sent forth her troops on this
expedition. Seeing that Tarascon and Beaucaire
are only separated by the Rhone, it struck me as
peculiar that such quiet should prevail on one bank,
while such fierce conflict was raging on the other.
I did not doubt that something had happened, but
not an event of such gravity as was reported. We
therefore decided to push on to Beaucaire, and when
we got there we found the town in the most perfect
order. The expedition of twelve thousand men was

754

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

reduced to one of two hundred, which had been
easily repulsed, with the result that of the assail-
ants one had been wounded and one made prisoner.
Proud of this success, the people of Beaucaire en-
trusted us with a thousand objurgations to deliver to
their inveterate enemies the citizens of Nimes.

" If any journey could give a correct idea of the
preparations for civil war and the confusion which
already prevailed in the South, I should think that
without contradiction it would be that which we
took that day. Along the four leagues which lie be-
tween Beaucaire and Nimes were posted at frequent
intervals detachments of troops displaying alter-
nately the white and the tricoloured cockade. Every
village upon our route except those just outside of
Nimes had definitely joined either one party or the
other, and the soldiers, who were stationed at equal
distances along the road, were now Royalist and now
Bonapartist. Before leaving Beaucaire we had all
provided ourselves, taking example by the men we
had seen at Orgon, with two cockades, one white, and
one tricoloured, and by peeping out from carriage
windows we were able to see which was worn by the
troops we were approaching in time to attach a sim-
ilar one to our hats before we got up to them, whilst
we hid the other in our shoes ; then as we were pass-
ing we stuck our heads, decorated according to cir-
cumstances, out of the windows, and shouted

755

CELEBRATED CRIMES

vigorously, ' Long live the king ! ' or ' Long live the
emperor!' as the case demanded. Thanks to this
concession to political opinions on the highway, and
in no less degree to the money which we gave by
way of tips to everybody everywhere, we arrived at
length at the barriers of Nimes, where we came up
with the National Guards who had been repulsed
by the townspeople of Beaucaire.

" This is what had taken place just before we ar-
rived in the city : —

" The National Guard of Nimes and the troops
of which the garrison was composed had resolved to
unite in giving a banquet on Sunday, the 28th of
June, to celebrate the success of the French army.
The news of the battle of Waterloo travelled much
more quickly to Marseilles than to Nimes, so the
banquet took place without interruption. A bust of
Napoleon was carried in procession all over the
town, and then the regular soldiers and the National
Guard devoted the rest of the day to rejoicings,
which were followed by no excess.

" But the day was not quite finished before news
came that numerous meetings were taking place at
Beaucaire, so although the news of the defeat at
Waterloo reached Nimes on the following Tuesday,
the troops which we had seen returning at the gates
of the city had been despatched on Wednesday to
disperse these assemblies. Meantime the Bonapart-

756

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

ists, under the command of General Gilly, amongst
whom was a regiment of chasseurs, beginning to
despair of the success of their cause, felt that their
situation was becoming very critical, especially as
they learnt that the forces at Beaucaire had assumed
the offensive and were about to march upon Nimes.
As I had had no connection with anything that had
taken place in the capital of the Gard, I personally
had nothing to fear; but having learned by experi-
ence how easily suspicions arise, I was afraid that
the ill-kick which had not spared either my friends t
or my family might lead to their being accused of
having received a refugee from Marseilles, a word
which in itself had small significance, but which in
the mouth of an enemy might be fatal. Fears for
the future being thus aroused by my recollections of
the past, I decided to give up the contemplation of
a drama which might become redoubtable, and to
bury myself in the country with the firm intention
of coming back to Nimes as soon as the white flag
should once more float from its towers.

" An old castle in the Cevennes, which from the
days when the Albigenses were burnt, down to the
massacre of La Bagarre, had witnessed many a
revolution and counter revolution, became the asy-
lum of my wife, my mother, M , and myself.

As the peaceful tranquillity of our life there was un-
broken by any event of interest, I shall not pause

757

CELEBRATED CRIMES

to dwell on it. But at length we grew weary, for
such is man, of our life of calm, and being left once
for nearly a week without any news from out-
side, we made that an excuse for returning to Nimes
in order to see with our own eyes how things were
going on.

" When we were about two leagues on our way
we met the carriage of a friend, a rich landed pro-
prietor from the city; seeing that he was in it, I
alighted to ask him what was happening at Nimes.
' I hope you do not think of going there,' said he,
' especially at this moment ; the excitement is in-
tense, blood has already flowed, and a catastrophe is
imminent.' So back we went to our mountain castle,
but in a few days became again a prey to the same
restlessness, and, not being able to overcome it, de-
cided to go at all risks and see for ourselves the
condition of affairs ; and this time, neither advice nor
warning having any effect, we not only set out, but
we arrived at our destination the same evening.

" We had not been misinformed, frays having al-
ready taken place in the streets which had heated
public opinion. One man had been killed on the
Esplanade by a musket shot, and it seemed as if his
death would be only the forerunner of many. The
Catholics were awaiting with impatience the arrival
of those doughty warriors from Beaucaire on whom
they placed their chief reliance. The Protestants

758

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

went about in painful silence, and fear blanched
every face. At length the white flag was hoisted
and the king proclaimed without any of the disor-
ders which had been dreaded taking place, but it was
plainly visible that this calm was only a pause before
a struggle, and that on the slightest pretext the pent-
up passions would break loose again.

" Just at this time the memory of our quiet life
in the mountains inspired us with a happy idea. We
had learned that the obstinate resolution of Marshal
Brune never to acknowledge Louis xviii as king
had been softened, and that the marshal had been
induced to hoist the white flag at Toulon, while with
a cockade in his hat he had formally resigned the
command of that place into the hands of the royal
authorities.

" Henceforward in all Provence there was no
spot where he could live unmarked. His ultimate
intentions were unknown to us, indeed his move-
ments seemed to show great hesitation on his part,
so it occurred to us to offer him our little country
house as a refuge where he could await the arrival

of more peaceful times. We decided that M

and another friend of ours who had just arrived
from Paris should go to him and make the offer,
which he would at once accept all the more readily
because it came from the hearts which were deeply
devoted to him. They set out, but to my great sur-

759

CELEBRATED CRIMES

prise returned the same day. They brought us word
that Marshal Brune had been assassinated at Avig-
non.

" At first we could not believe the dreadful news,
and took it for one of those ghastly rumours which
circulate with such rapidity during periods of civil
strife; but we were not left long in uncertainty, for
the details of the catastrophe arrived all too soon."

760

CHAPTER VIII

FOR some days Avignon had its assassins, as
Marseilles had had them, and as Nimes was
about to have them; for some days all Avignon
shuddered at the names of five men — Pointu, Far-
ges, Roquefort, Naudaud, and Magnan.

Pointu was a perfect type of the men of the
South, olive-skinned and eagle-eyed, with a hook
nose, and teeth of ivory. Although he was hardly
above middle height, and his back was bent from
bearing heavy burdens, his legs bowed by the pres-
sure of the enormous masses which he daily carried,
he was yet possessed of extraordinary strength and
dexterity. He could throw over the Loulle gate a
48-pound cannon ball as easily as a child could
throw its ball. He could fling a stone from one
bank of the Rhone to the other where it was two
hundred yards wide. And lastly, he could throw a
knife backwards while running at full speed with
such strength and precision of aim that this new
kind of Parthian arrow would go whistling through
the air to hide two inches of its iron head in a tree
trunk no thicker than a man's thigh. When to these

761

CELEBRATED CRIMES

accomplishments are added an equal skill with the
musket, the pistol, and the quarter-staff, a good
deal of mother wit, a deep hatred for Republicans,
against whom he had vowed vengeance at the foot
of the scaffold on which his father and mother had
perished, an idea can be formed of the terrible chief
of the assassins of Avignon, who had for his lieu-
tenants, Farges the silk-weaver, Roquefort the por-
ter, Naudaud the baker, and Magnan the second-
hand clothes dealer.

Avignon was entirely in the power of these five
men, whose brutal conduct the civil and military
authorities would not or could not repress, when
word came that Marshal Brune, who was at Luc in
command of six thousand troops, had been sum-
moned to Paris to give an account of his conduct to
the new Government.

The marshal, knowing the state of intense excite-
ment which prevailed in the South, and foreseeing
the perils likely to meet him on the road, asked per-
mission to travel by water, but met with an official
refusal, and the Due de Riviere, governor of Mar-
seilles, furnished him with a safe-conduct. The
cut-throats bellowed with joy when they learned
that a Republican of '89, who had risen to the rank
of marshal under the Usurper, was about to pass
through Avignon. At the same time sinister reports
began to run from mouth to mouth, the harbingers

762

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

of death. Once more the infamous slander which
a hundred times had been proved to be false, raised
its voice with dogged persistence, asserting that
Brune, who did not arrive at Paris until the 5th of
September, 1792, had on the 2nd, when still at
Lyons, carried the head of the Princesse de Lamballe
impaled on a pike. Soon the news came that
the marshal had just escaped assassination at
Aix, indeed he owed his safety to the fleetness
of his horses. Pointu, Forges, and Roquefort
swore that they would manage things better at
Avignon.

By the route which the marshal had chosen there
were only two ways open by which he could reach
Lyons: he must either pass through Avignon, or
avoid it by taking a cross-road, which branched off
the Pointet highway, two leagues outside the town.
The assassins thought he would take the latter
course, and on the 2nd of August, the day on which
the marshal was expected, Pointu, Magnan, and
Naudaud, with four of their creatures, took a car-
riage at six o'clock in the morning, and, setting out
from the Rhone bridge, hid themselves by the side
of the high road to Pointet.

When the marshal reached the point where the
road divided, having been warned of the hostile
feelings so rife in Avignon, he decided to take the
cross-road upon which Pointu and his men were

763

CELEBRATED CRIMES

awaiting him; but the postillion obstinately refused
to drive in this direction, saying. that he always
changed horses at Avignon, and not at Pointet.
One of the marshal's aides-de-camp tried, pistol in
hand, to force him to obey ; but the marshal would
permit no violence to be offered him, and gave him
orders to go on to Avignon.

The marshal reached the town at nine o'clock in
the morning, and alighted at the Hotel du Palais
Royal, which was also the post-house. While fresh
horses were being put to and the passports and safe-
conduct examined at the Loulle gate, the marshal
entered the hotel to take a plate of soup. In less
than five minutes a crowd gathered round the door,
and M. Moulin the proprietor noticing the sinister
and threatening expression many of the faces bore,
went to the marshal's room and urged him to leave
instantly without waiting for his papers, pledging
his word that he would send a man on horseback
after him, who would overtake him two or three
leagues beyond the town, and bring him his own
safe-conduct and the passports of his aides-de-camp.
The marshal came downstairs, and finding the
horses ready, got into the carriage, on which loud
murmurs arose from the populace, amongst which
could be distinguished the terrible word saou! that
excited cry of the Provencal, which according to the
tone in which it is uttered expresses every shade of

764

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

threat, and which means at once in a single syllable,
" Bite, rend, kill, murder! "

The marshal set out at a gallop, and passed the
town gates unmolested, except by the howlings of
the populace, who, however, made no attempt to
stop him. He thought he had left all his enemies
behind, but when he reached the Rhone bridge he
found a group of men armed with muskets waiting
there, led by Farges and Roquefort. They all
raised their guns and took aim at the marshal, who
thereupon ordered the postillion to drive back. The
order was obeyed, but when the carriage had gone
about fifty yards it was met by the crowd from the
" Palais Royal," which had followed it, so the pos-
tillion stopped. In a moment the traces were cut,
whereupon the marshal, opening the door, alighted,
followed by his valet, and passing on foot through
the Loulle gate, followed by a second carriage in
which were his aides-de-camp, he regained the
" Palais Royal," the doors of which were opened to
him and his suite, and immediately secured against
all others.

The marshal asked to be shown to a room, and
M. Moulin gave him No. I , to the front. In ten min-
utes three thousand people filled the square; it was
as if the population sprang up from the ground.
Just then the carriage, which the marshal had left
behind, came up, the postillion having tied the traces,

765

CELEBRATED CRIMES

and a second time the great yard gates were opened,
and in spite of the press closed again and barricaded
by the porter Vernet, and M. Moulin himself, both
of whom were men of colossal strength. The aides-
de-camp, who had remained in the carriage until
then, now alighted, and asked to be shown to the
marshal ; but Moulin ordered the porter to conceal
them in an outhouse. Vernet taking one in each
hand, dragged them off despite their struggles, and
pushing them behind some empty barrels, over which
he threw an old piece of carpet, said to them in a
voice as solemn as if he were a prophet, "If you
move, you are dead men," and left them. The aides-
de-camp remained there motionless and silent.

At that moment M. de Saint-Chamans, prefect of
Avignon, who had arrived in town at five o'clock in
the morning, came out into the courtyard. By this
time the crowd was smashing the windows and
breaking in the street door. The square was full
to overflowing, everywhere threatening cries were
heard, and above all the terrible zaou} which from
moment to moment became more full of menace.
M. Moulin saw that if they could not hold out until
the troops under Major Lambot arrived, all was lost;
he therefore told Vernet to settle the business of
those who were breaking in the door, while he would
take charge of those who were trying to get in at
the window. Thus these two men, moved by a com-

766

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

mon impulse and of equal courage, undertook to dis-
pute with a howling mob the possession of the blood
for which it thirsted.

Both dashed to their posts, one in the hall, the
other in the dining-room, and found door and win-
dows already smashed, and several men in the house.
At the sight of Vernet, with whose immense
strength they were acquainted, those in the hall drew
back a step, and Vernet, taking advantage of this
movement, succeeded in ejecting them and in secur-
ing the door once more. Meantime M. Moulin, seiz-
ing his double-barrelled gun, which stood in the
chimney-corner, pointed it at five men who had got
into the dining-room, and threatened to fire if they
did not instantly get out again. Four obeyed, but
one refused to budge; whereupon Moulin, finding
himself no longer outnumbered, laid aside his gun,
and, seizing his adversary round the waist, lifted
him as if he were a child and flung him out of the
window. The man died three weeks later, not from
the fall but from the squeeze.

Moulin then dashed to the window to secure it,
but as he laid his hand on it he felt his head seized
from behind and pressed violently down on his left
shoulder ; at the same instant a pane was broken into
splinters, and the head of a hatchet struck his right
shoulder. M. de Saint-Chamans, who had followed
him into the room, had seen the weapon thrown at

767

Dumas — Vol. 2 — 12

CELEBRATED CRIMES

Moulin's head, and not being able to turn aside the
iron, had turned aside the object at which it was
aimed. Moulin seized the hatchet by the handle and
tore it out of the hands of him who had delivered
the blow, which fortunately had missed its aim. He
then finished closing the window, and secured it by
making fast the inside shutters, and went upstairs
to see after the marshal.

Him he found striding up and down his room,
his handsome and noble face as calm as if the voices
of all those shouting men outside were not demand-
ing his death. Moulin made him leave No. i for
No. 3, which, being a back room and looking out
on the courtyard, seemed to offer more chances of
safety than the other. The marshal asked for writ-
ing materials, which Moulin brought, whereupon the
marshal sat down at a little table and began to write.

Just then the cries outside became still more up-
roarious. M. de Saint-Chamans had gone out and
ordered the crowd to disperse, whereupon a thou-
sand people had answered him with one voice, ask-
ing who he was that he should give such an order.
He announced his rank and authority, to which the
answer was, " We only know the prefect by his
clothes." Now it had unfortunately happened that
M. de Chamans having sent his trunks by diligence
they had not yet arrived, and being dressed in a
green coat, nankeen trousers, and a pique vest, it

768

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

could hardly be expected that in such a suit he should
overawe the people under the circumstances; so,
when he got up on a bench to harangue the populace,
cries arose of " Down with the green coat ! We
have enough of charlatans like that ! " and he was
forced to get down again. As Vernet opened the
door to let him in, several men took advantage of
the circumstance to push in along with him; but
Vernet let his fist fall three times, and three men
rolled at his feet like bulls struck by a club. The
others withdrew. A dozen champions such as Ver-
net would have saved the marshal. Yet it must not
be forgotten that this man was a Royalist, and held
the same opinions as those against whom he fought ;
for him as for them the marshal was a mortal
enemy, but he had a noble heart, and if the marshal
were guilty he desired a trial and not a murder.
Meantime a certain onlooker had heard what had
been said to M. de Chamans about his unofficial cos-
tume, and had gone to put on his uniform. This
was M. de Puy, a handsome and venerable old man,
with white hair, pleasant expression, and winning
voice. He soon came back in his mayor's robes,
wearing his scarf and his double cross of St. Louis
and the Legion of Honour. But neither his age nor
his dignity made the slightest impression on these
people; they did not even allow him to get back to
the hotel door, but knocked him down and trampled

769

CELEBRATED CRIMES

him under foot, so that he hardly escaped with torn
clothes and his white hair covered with dust and
blood. The fury of the mob had now reached its
height.

At this juncture the garrison of Avignon came in
sight ; it was composed of four hundred volunteers,
who formed a battalion known as the Royal Angoul-
eme. It was commanded by a man who had assumed
the title of Lieutenant-General of the Emancipating
Army of Vaucluse. These forces drew up under
the windows of the " Palais Royal." They were
composed almost entirely of Provengeaux, and spoke
the same dialect as the people of the lower orders.
The crowd asked the soldiers for what they had
come, why they did not leave them to accomplish an
act of justice in peace, and if they intended to inter-
fere. " Quite the contrary," said one of the sol-
diers; "pitch him out of the window, and we will
catch him on the points of our bayonets." Brutal
cries of joy greeted this answer, succeeded by a short
silence, but it was easy to see that under the apparent
calm the crowd was in a state of eager expectation.
Soon new shouts were heard, but this time from
the interior of the hotel; a small band of men led by
Farges and Roquefort had separated themselves
from the throng, and by the help of ladders had
scaled the walls and got on the roof of the house,
and, gliding down the other side, had dropped into

770

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

the balcony outside the windows of the rooms where
the marshal was writing.

Some of these dashed through the windows with-
out waiting to open them, others rushed in at the
open door. The marshal, thus taken by surprise,
rose, and not wishing that the letter he was writing
to the Austrian commandant to claim his protection
should fall into the hands of these wretches, he tore
it to pieces. Then a man who belonged to a better
class than the others, and who wears to-day the
Cross of the Legion of Honour, granted to him
perhaps for his conduct on this occasion, advanced
towards the marshal, sword in hand, and told him
if he had any last arrangements to make, he should
make them at once, for he had only ten minutes
to live.

" What are you thinking of? " exclaimed Farges.
" Ten minutes ! Did he give the Princesse de Lam-
balle ten minutes ? " and he pointed his pistol at the
marshal's breast ; but the marshal striking up the
weapon, the shot missed its aim and buried itself in
the ceiling.

" Clumsy fellow ! " said the marshal, shrugging
his shoulders, " not to be able to kill a man at such
close range."

" That's true," replied Roquefort in his patois.
" I'll show you how to do it" ; and, receding a step,
he took aim with his carbine at his victim, whose

771

CELEBRATED CRIMES

back was partly towards him. A report was heard,
and the marshal fell dead on the spot, the bullet
which entered at the shoulder going right through
his body and striking the opposite wall.

The two shots, which had been heard in the street,
made the howling mob dance for joy. One cow-
ardly fellow, called Cadillan, rushed out on one of
the balconies which looked on the square, and, hold-
ing a loaded pistol in each hand, which he had not
dared to discharge even into the dead body of the
murdered man, he cut a caper, and, holding up the
innocent weapons, called out, " These have done the
business! " But he lied, the braggart, and boasted
of a crime which was committed by braver cut-
throats than he.

Behind him came the general of the " Emanci-
pating Army of Vaucluse," who, graciously saluting
the crowd, said, " The marshal has carried out an
act of justice by taking his own life." Shouts of
mingled joy, revenge, and hatred rose from the
crowd, and the king's attorney and the examining
magistrate set about drawing up a report of the
suicide.

Now that all was over and there was no longer
any question of saving the marshal, M. Moulin de-
sired at least to save the valuables which he had in
his carriage. He found in a cash box 40,000 francs,
in the pockets a snuff-box set with diamonds, and

772

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

a pair of pistols and two swords; the hilt of one of
these latter was studded with precious stones, a gift
from the ill-starred Selim. M. Moulin returned
across the court, carrying these things. The Da-
mascus blade was wrenched from his hands, and the
robber kept it five years as a trophy, and it was not
until the year 1820 that he was forced to give it up
to the representative of the marshal's widow. Yet
this man was an officer, and kept his rank all through
the Restoration, and was not dismissed the army
till 1830. When M. Moulin had placed the other
objects in safety, he requested the magistrate to
have the corpse removed, as he wished the crowds
to disperse, that he might look after the aides-de-
camp. While they were undressing the marshal, in
order to certify the cause of death, a leathern belt
was found on him containing 5536 francs. The
body was carried downstairs by the grave-diggers
without any opposition being offered, but hardly
had they advanced ten yards into the square when
shouts of "To the Rhone! to the Rhone!" re-
sounded on all sides. A police officer who tried to
interfere was knocked down, the bearers were or-
dered to turn round; they obeyed, and the crowd
carried them off towards the wooden bridge. When
the fourteenth arch was reached, the bier was torn
from the bearers' hands, and the corpse was flung
into the river. " Military honours ! " shouted some-

773

CELEBRATED CRIMES

one, and all who had guns fired at the dead body,
which was twice struck. " Tomb of Marshal
Brune " was then written on the arch, and the crowd
withdrew, and passed the rest of the day in holiday-
making.

Meanwhile the Rhone, refusing to be an accom-
plice in such a crime, bore away the corpse, which
the assassins believed had been swallowed up for
ever. Next day it was found on the sandy shore
at Tarascon, but the news of the murder had pre-
ceded it, and it was recognised by the wounds, and
pushed back again into the waters, which bore it
towards the sea.

Three leagues farther on it stopped again, this
time by a grassy bank, and was found by a man of
forty and another of eighteen. They also recog-
nised it, but instead of shoving it back into the cur-
rent, they drew it up gently on the bank and carried
it to a small property belonging to one of them,
where they reverently interred it. The elder of the
two was M. de Chartruse, the younger M. Amedee
Pichot.

The body was exhumed by order of the marshal's
widow, and brought to her castle of Saint-Just, in
Champagne; she had it embalmed, and placed in a
bedroom adjoining her own, where it remained,
covered only by a veil, until the memory of the de-
ceased was cleansed from the accusation of suicide

774

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

by a solemn public trial and judgment. Then only
it was finally interred, along with the parchment
containing the decision of the Court of Riom.

The ruffians who killed Marshal Brune, although
they evaded the justice of men, did not escape the
vengeance of God : nearly every one of them came to
a miserable end. Roquefort and Farges were at-
tacked by strange and hitherto unknown diseases,
recalling the plagues sent by God on the peoples
whom He desired to punish in bygone ages. In the
case of Farges, his skin dried up and became horny,
causing him such intense irritation, that as the only
means of allaying it he had to be kept buried up to
the neck while still alive. The disease under which
Roquefort suffered seemed to have its seat in the
marrow, for his bones by degrees lost all solidity
and power of resistance, so that his limbs refused
to bear his weight, and he went about the streets
crawling like a serpent. Both died in such dreadful
torture that they regretted having escaped the scaf-
fold, which would have spared them such prolonged
agony.

Pointu was condemned to death, in his absence, at
the Assizes Court of La Drome, for having mur-
dered five people, and was cast off by his own fac-
tion. For some time his wife, who was infirm and
deformed, might be seen going from house to house
asking alms for him, who had been for two months

775

CELEBRATED CRIMES

the arbiter of civil war and assassination. Then
came a day when she ceased her quest, and was
seen sitting, her head covered by a black rag : Pointu
was dead, but it was never known where or how.
In some corner, probably, in the crevice of a rock or
in the heart of the forest, like an old tiger whose
talons have been clipped and his teeth drawn.

Naudaud and Magnan were sentenced to the gal-
leys for ten years. Naudaud died there, but Mag-
nan finished his time and then became a scavenger,
and, faithful to his vocation as a dealer of death, a
poisoner of stray dogs.

Some of these cut-throats are still living, and fill
good positions, wearing crosses and epaulets, and,
rejoicing in their impunity, imagine they have es-
caped the eye of God.

We shall wait and see!

776

CHAPTER IX
1815

IT was on Saturday that the white flag was
hoisted at Nimes. The next day a crowd of
Catholic peasants from the environs marched into
the city, to await the arrival of the Royalist army
from Beaucaire. Excitement was at fever heat, the
desire of revenge filled every breast, the hereditary
hatred which had slumbered during the Empire
again awoke stronger than ever. Here I may pause
to say that in the account which follows of the
events which took place about this time, I can only
guarantee the facts and not the dates : I relate every-
thing as it happened; but the day on which it hap-
pened may sometimes have escaped my memory, for
it is easier to recollect a murder to which one has
been an eye-witness, than to recall the exact date on
which it happened.

The garrison of Nimes was composed of one bat-
talion of the 13th Regiment of the line, and another
battalion of the 79th Regiment, which not being up
to its full war-strength had been sent to Nimes to

777

CELEBRATED CRIMES

complete its numbers by enlistment. But after the
battle of Waterloo the citizens had tried to induce
the soldiers to desert, so that of the two battalions,
even counting the officers, only about two hundred
men remained.

When the news of the proclamation of Napoleon
II reached Nimes, Brigadier-General Malmont, com-
mandant of the department, had him proclaimed in
the city without any disturbance being caused
thereby. It was not until some days later that a
report began to be circulated that a royal army was
gathering at Beaucaire, and that the populace would
take advantage of its arrival to indulge in excesses.
In the face of this two-fold danger, General Mal-
mont had ordered the regular troops, and a part of
the National Guard of the Hundred Days, to be
drawn up under arms in the rear of the barracks
upon an eminence on which he had mounted five
pieces of ordnance. This disposition was main-
tained for two days and a night, but as the popu-
lace remained quiet, the troops returned to the bar-
racks and the Guards to their homes.

But on Monday a concourse of people, who had
heard that the army from Beaucaire would arrive
the next day, made a hostile demonstration before
the barracks, demanding with shouts and threats
that the five cannons should be handed over to them.
The general and the officers who were quartered

778

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

in the town, hearing of the tumult, repaired at once
to the barracks, but soon came out again, and ap-
proaching the crowd tried to persuade it to disperse,
to which the only answer they received was a shower
of bullets. Convinced by this, as he was well ac-
quainted with the character of the people with whom
he had to deal, that the struggle had begun in earn-
est and must be fought out to the bitter end, the
general retreated with his officers, step by step, to
the barracks, and having got inside the gates, closed
and bolted them.

He then decided that it was his duty to repulse
force by force, for everyone was determined to
defend, at no matter what cost, a position which,
from the first moment of revolt, was fraught with
such peril. So, without waiting for orders, the sol-
diers, seeing that some of their windows had been
broken by shots from without, returned the fire,
and, being better marksmen than the townspeople,
soon laid many low. Upon this the alarmed crowd
retired out of musket range, and entrenched them-
selves in some neighbouring houses.

About nine o'clock in the evening, a man bearing
something resembling a white flag approached the
walls and asked to speak to the general. He brought
a message inquiring on what terms the troops would
consent to evacuate Nimes. The general sent back
word that the conditions were, that the troops should

779

CELEBRATED CRIMES

be allowed to march out fully armed and with all
their baggage ; the five guns alone would be left be-
hind. When the forces reached a certain valley out-
side the city they would halt, that the men might be
supplied with means sufficient to enable them either
to rejoin the regiments to which they belonged, or
to return to their own homes.

At two o'clock a.m. the same envoy returned, and
announced to the general that the conditions had
been accepted with one alteration, which was that
the troops, before marching out, should lay down
their arms. The messenger also intimated that if
the offer he had brought were not quickly accepted
— say within two hours — the time for capitulation
would have gone by, and that he would not be
answerable for what the people might then do in
their fury. The general accepted the conditions as
amended, and the envoy disappeared.

When the troops heard of the agreement, that
they should be disarmed before being allowed to
leave the town, their first impulse was to refuse to
lay down their weapons before a rabble which had
run away from a few musket shots ; but the general
succeeded in soothing their sense of humiliation and
winning their consent by representing to them that
there could be nothing dishonourable in an action
which prevented the children of a common father-
land from shedding each other's blood.

780

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

The gendarmerie, according- to one article of the
treaty, were to close in at the rear of the evacuating
column, and thus hinder the populace from molest-
ing the troops of which it was composed. This was
the only concession obtained in return for the aban-
doned arms, and the force in question was already
drawn up in field order, apparently waiting to escort
the troops out of the city.

At four o'clock p.m. the troops got ready, each
company stacking its arms in the courtyard before
marching out; but hardly had forty or fifty men
passed the gates than fire was opened on them at
such close range that half of them were killed or dis-
abled at the first volley. Upon this, those who were
still within the walls closed the courtyard gates, thus
cutting off all chance of retreat from their comrades.
In the event, however, it turned out that several of
the latter contrived to escape with their lives and
that they lost nothing through being prevented from
returning; for as soon as the mob saw that ten or
twelve of their victims had slipped through their
hands they made a furious attack on the barracks,
burst in the gates, and scaled the walls with such
rapidity, that the soldiers had no time to repossess
themselves of their muskets, and even had they suc-
ceeded in seizing them they would have been of lit-
tle use, as ammunition was totally wanting. The
barracks being thus carried by assault, a horrible

781

CELEBRATED CRIMES

massacre ensued, which lasted for three nours.
Some of the wretched men, being hunted from room
to room, jumped out of the first window they could
reach, without stopping to measure its height from
the ground, and were either impaled on the bayonets
held in readiness below, or, falling on the pavement,
broke their limbs and were pitilessly despatched.

The gendarmes, who had really been called out
to protect the retreat of the garrison, seemed to
imagine they were there to witness a judicial exe-
cution, and stood immovable and impassive while
these horrid deeds went on before their eyes. But
the penalty of this indifference was swiftly exacted,
for as soon as the soldiers were all done with, the
mob, finding their thirst for blood still unslacked,
turned on the gendarmes, the greater number of
whom were wounded, while all lost their horses, and
some their lives.

The populace was still engaged at its bloody task
when news came that the army from Beaucaire was
within sight of the town, and the murderers, hasten-
ing to despatch some of the wounded who still
showed signs of life, went forth to meet the long
expected reinforcements.

Only those who saw the advancing army with
their own eyes can form any idea of its condition
and appearance, the first corps excepted. This corps
was commanded by M. de Barre, who had put him-

782

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

self at its head with the noble purpose of preventing,
as far as he could, massacre and pillage. In this he
was seconded by the officers under him, who were
actuated by the same philanthropic motives as their
general in identifying themselves with the corps.
Owing to their exertions, the men advanced in fairly
regular order, and good discipline was maintained.
All the men carried muskets.

But the first corps was only a kind of vanguard
to the second, which was the real army, and a won-
derful thing to see and hear. Never were brought
together before or since so many different kinds of
howl, so many threats of death, so many rags, so
many odd weapons, from the matchlock of the time
of the Michclade to the steel-tipped goad of the bul-
lock drovers of La Camargue, so that when the
Nimes mob, which in all conscience was howling
and ragged enough, rushed out to offer a brotherly
welcome to the strangers, its first feeling was one
of astonishment and dismay as it caught sight of
the motley crew which held out to it the right hand
of fellowship.

The new-comers soon showed that it was through
necessity and not choice that their outer man pre-
sented such a disreputable appearance ; for they were
hardly well within the gates before demanding that
the houses of the members of the old Protestant
National Guard should be pointed out to them.

783

CELEBRATED CRIMES

This being clone, they promptly proceeded to exact
from each household a musket, a coat, a complete
kit, or a sum of money, according to their humour,
so that before evening those who had arrived naked
and penniless were provided with complete uni-
forms and had money in their pockets. These ex-
actions were levied under the name of a contribution,
but before the day was ended naked and undisguised
pillage began.

Someone asserted that during the assault on the
barracks a certain individual had fired out of a cer-
tain house on the assailants. The indignant people
now rushed to the house indicated, and soon left
nothing of it in existence but its walls. A little
later it was clearly proved that the individual ac-
cused was quite innocent of the crime laid to his
charge.

The house of a rich merchant lay in the path of
the advancing army. A cry arose that the owner
was a Bonapartist, and nothing more was needed.
The house was broken into and pillaged, and the
furniture thrown out of the windows. Two days
later it turned out that not only was the merchant no
Bonapartist, but that his son had been one of those
who had accompanied the Due d'Angouleme to Cette
when he left the country. The pillagers excused
themselves by saying they had been misled by a
resemblance between two names, and this excuse,

784

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

as far as appears, was accepted as valid by the
authorities.

It was not long before the populace of Nimes be-
gan to think they might as well follow the example
set them by their brothers from Beaucaire. In
twenty- four hours free companies were formed,
headed by Trestaillons, Truphemy, Graffan, and
Morinet. These bands arrogated to themselves the
title of National Guard, and then what took place
at Marseilles in the excitement of the moment was
repeated at Nimes with deliberation and method,
inspired by hate and the desire of vengeance. A re-
volt broke out which followed the ordinary course:
first pillage, then fire, then murder, laid waste the
city.

M. V 's house, which stood in the middle of

the town, was sacked and then burnt to the ground,
without a hand being raised to prevent the crime.

M. T 's house, on the road to Montpellier,

was sacked and wrecked and a bonfire made of the
furniture, round which the crowd danced, as if it
had been an occasion of public rejoicing. Then
cries were raised for the proprietor, that he might
be killed, and as he could not be found the baffled
fury of the mob vented itself on the dead. A child
three months buried was dragged from its grave,
drawn by the feet through the sewers and wayside
puddles, and then flung on a dung-heap ; and, strange

785

CELEBRATED CRIMES

to say, while incendiarism and sacrilege thus ran
riot, the mayor of the place slept so sound that when
he awoke he was " quite astonished," to use his own
expression, to hear what had taken place during the
night.

This expedition completed, the same company
which had brought this expedition to a successful
issue next turned their attention to a small country
house occupied by a widow, whom I had often
begged to take refuge with us. But, secure in her
insignificance, she had always declined our offers,
preferring to live solitary and retired in her own
home. But the freebooters sought her out, burst in
her doors, drove her away with blows and insults,
destroyed her house and burnt her furniture. They
then proceeded to the vault in which lay the remains
of her family, dragged them out of their coffins and
scattered them about the fields. The next day the
poor woman ventured back, collected the desecrated
remains with pious care, and replaced them in the
vault. But this was counted to her as a crime; the
company returned, once more cast forth the contents
of the coffins, and threatened to kill her should she
dare to touch them again. She was often seen in
the days that followed shedding bitter tears and
watching over the sacred relics as they lay exposed
on the ground.

The name of this widow was Pepin, and the scene
786

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

of the sacrilege was a small enclosure on the hill of
the Moulins-a-Vent.

Meantime the people in the Faubourg des Bour-
gades had invented a new sort of game, or rather,
had resolved to vary the serious business of the
drama that was being enacted by the introduction
of comic scenes. They had possessed themselves
of a number of beetles such as washerwomen use,
and hammered in long nails, the points of which
projected an inch on the other side in the form of a
fleur-de-lis. Every Protestant who fell into their
hands, no matter what his age or rank, was stamped
with the bloody emblem, serious wounds being in-
flicted in many cases.

Murders were now becoming common. Amongst
other names of victims mentioned were Loriol,
Bigot, Dumas, Lhermet, Heritier, Domaison,
Combe, Clairon, Begomet, Poujas, Imbert, Vigal,
Pourchet, Vignole. Details more or less shocking
came to light as to the manner in which the mur-
derers went to work. A man called Dalbos was in
the custody of two armed men; some others came
to consult with them. Dalbos appealed for mercy to
the new-comers. It was granted, but as he turned
to go he was shot dead. Another of the name of
Rambert tried to escape by disguising himself as a
woman, but was recognised and shot down a few
yards outside his own door. A gunner called Saus-

7%7

CELEBRATED CRIMES

sine was walking in all security along the road to
Uzes, pipe in mouth, when he was met by five men
belonging to Trestaillon's company, who surrounded
him and stabbed him to the heart with their knives.
The elder of two brothers named Chivas ran across
some fields to take shelter in a country house called
Rouviere, which, unknown to him, had been oc-
cupied by some of the new National Guard. These
met him on the threshold and shot him dead.

Rant was seized in his own house and shot. Clos
was met by a company, and seeing Trestaillons, with
whom he had always been friends, in its ranks, he
went up to him and held out his hand, whereupon
Trestaillons drew a pistol from his belt and blew his
brains out. Calandre being chased down the rue
des Sceurs-Grises, sought shelter in a tavern, but
was forced to come out, and was killed with sabres.
Courbet was sent to prison under the escort of some
men, but these changed their minds on the way as
to his punishment, halted, and shot him dead in the
middle of the street.

A wTine merchant called Cabanot, who was flying
from Trestaillons, ran into a house in which there
was a venerable priest called Cure Bonhomme.
When the cut-throat rushed in, all covered with
blood, the priest advanced and stopped him, crying —

" What will happen, unhappy man, when you
come to the confessional with blood-stained hands? "

788

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

" Pooh ! " replied Trestaillons, " you must put on
your wide gown ; the sleeves are large enough to let
everything pass."

To the short account given above of so many mur-
ders I will add the narrative of one to which I
was an eye-witness, and which made the most
terrible impression on me of anything in my
experience.

It was midnight. I was working beside my wife's
bed; she was just becoming drowsy, when a noise in
the distance caught our attention. It gradually be-
came more distinct, and drums began to beat the
gcncrale in every direction. Hiding my own alarm
for fear of increasing hers, I answered my wife,
who was asking what new thing was about to hap-
pen, that it was probably troops marching in or out
of garrison. But soon reports of firearms, accom-
panied by an uproar with which we were so familiar
that we could no longer mistake its meaning, were
heard outside. Opening my window, I heard blood-
curdling imprecations, mixed with cries of "Long
live the king ! " going on. Not being able to remain
any longer in this uncertainty, I woke a captain who
lived in the same house. He rose, took his arms,
and we went out together, directing our course
towards the point whence the shouts seemed to
come. The moon shone so bright that we could see
everything almost as distinctly as in broad daylight.

789

CELEBRATED CRIMES

A concourse of people was hurrying towards the
Cours yelling like madmen; the greater number of
them, half naked, armed with muskets, swords,
knives, and clubs, and swearing to exterminate
everything, waved their weapons above the heads
of men who had evidently been torn from their
houses and brought to the square to be put to death.
The rest of the crowd had, like ourselves, been
drawn thither by curiosity, and were asking what
was going on. " Murder is abroad," was the an-
swer; "several people have been killed in the envi-
rons, and the patrol has been fired on." While this
questioning was going on the noise continued to
increase. As I had really no business to be on a
spot where such things were going on, and feeling
that my place was at my wife's side, to reassure
her for the present and to watch over her should
the rioters come our way, I said good-bye to the
captain, who went on to the barracks, and took the
road back to the suburb in which I lived.

I was not more than fifty steps from our house
when I heard loud talking behind me, and, turning,
saw gun barrels glittering in the moonlight. As the
speakers seemed to be rapidly approaching me, I
kept close in the shadow of the houses till I reached
my own door, which I laid softly to behind me,
leaving myself a chink by which I could peep out
and watch the movements of the group which was

790

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

drawing near. Suddenly I felt something touch
my hand ; it was a great Corsican dog, which was
turned loose at night, and was so fierce that it was a
great protection to our house. I felt glad to have
it at my side, for in case of a struggle it would be
no despicable ally.

Those approaching turned out to be three armed
men leading a fourth, disarmed and a prisoner.
They all stopped just opposite my door, which I
gently closed and locked, but as I still wished to see
what they were about, I slipped into the garden,
which lay towards the street, still followed by my
dog. Contrary to his habit, and as if he understood
the danger, he gave a low whine instead of his
usual savage growl. I climbed into a fig tree the
branches of which overhung the street, and, hidden
by the leaves, and resting my hands on the top of
the wall, I leaned far enough forward to see what
the men were about.

They were still on the same spot, but there was a
change in their positions. The prisoner was now
kneeling with clasped hands before the cut-throats,
begging for his life for the sake of his wife and
children, in heartrending accents, to which his exe-
cutioners replied in mocking tones, " We have got
you at last into our hands, have we? You dog of
a Bonapartist, why do you not call on your emperor
to come and help you out of this scrape ? " The un-

791

CELEBRATED CRIMES

fortunate man's entreaties became more pitiful and
their mocking replies more pitiless. They levelled
their muskets at him several times, and then lowered
them, saying, "Devil take it, we won't shoot yet;
let us give him time to see death coming," till at
last the poor wretch, seeing there was no hope of
mercy, begged to be put out of his misery.

Drops of sweat stood on my forehead. I felt my
pockets to see if I had nothing on me which I could
use as a weapon, but I had not even a knife. I
looked at my dog; he was lying flat at the foot of
the tree, and appeared to be a prey to the most abject
terror. The prisoner continued his supplications,
and the assassins their threats and mockery. I
climbed quietly down out of the fig tree, intending
to fetch my pistols. My dog followed me with his
eyes, which seemed to be the only living things about
him. Just as my foot touched the ground a double
report rang out, and my dog gave a plaintive and
prolonged howl. Feeling that all was over, and
that no weapons could be of any use, I climbed up
again into my perch and looked out. The poor
wretch was lying face downwards writhing in his
blood; the assassins were reloading their muskets
as they walked away.

Being anxious to see if it was too late to help the
man whom I had not been able to save, I went out
into the street and bent over him. He was bloody,

792

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

disfigured, dying, but was yet alive, uttering dismal
groans. I tried to lift him up, but soon saw that
the wounds which he had received from bullets
fired at close range were both mortal, one being
in the head, and the other in the loins. Just then
a patrol of the National Guard turned round the
corner of the street. This, instead of being a relief,
awoke me to a sense of my danger, and feeling I
could do nothing for the wounded man, for the
death rattle had already begun, I entered my house,
half shut the door, and listened.

" Qui vive ? " asked the corporal.

" Idiot ! " said someone else, " to ask ' Qui vive? '
of a dead man! "

" He is not dead," said a third voice ; " listen to
him singing" ; and indeed the poor fellow in his
agony was giving utterance to dreadful groans.

" Someone has tickled him well," said a fourth,
"but what does it matter? We had better finish
the job."

Five or six musket shots followed, and the groans
ceased.

The name of the man who had just expired was
Louis Lichaire; it wras not against him, but against
his nephew, that the assassins had had a grudge, but
finding the nephew out when they burst into the
house, and a victim being indispensable, they had
torn the uncle from the arms of his wife, and, drag-

793

CELEBRATED CRIMES

ging him towards the citadel, had killed him as I
have just related.

Very early next morning I sent to three commis-
sioners of police, one after the other, for permission
to have the corpse carried to the hospital, but these
gentlemen were either not up or had already gone
out, so that it was not until eleven o'clock and after
repeated applications that they condescended to give
me the needed authorisation.

Thanks to this delay, the whole town came to see
the body of the unfortunate man. Indeed, the day
which followed a massacre was always kept as a
holiday, everyone leaving his work undone and
coming out to stare at the slaughtered victims. In
this case, a man wishing to amuse the crowd took
his pipe out of his mouth and put it between the
teeth of the corpse — a joke which had a marvellous
success, those present shrieking with laughter.

Many murders had been committed during the
night; the companies had scoured the streets sing-
ing some doggerel, which one of the bloody
wretches, being in poetic vein, had composed, the
chorus of which was —

" Our work's well done,
We spare none! "

Seventeen fatal outrages were committed, and yet
neither the reports of the firearms nor the cries of
the victims broke the peaceful slumbers of M. le

794

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

Prefet and M. le Commissaire General de la Police.
But if the civil authorities slept, General Lagarde,
who had shortly before come to town to take com-
mand of the city in the name of the king, was
awake. He had sprung from his bed at the first
shot, dressed himself, and made a round of the
posts; then sure that everything was in order, he
had formed patrols of chasseurs, and had himself,
accompanied by two officers only, gone wherever he
heard cries for help. But in spite of the strictness
of his orders the small number of troops at his dis-
position delayed the success of his efforts, and it
was not until three o'clock in the morning that he
succeeded in securing Trestaillons. When this man
was taken he was dressed as usual in the uniform
of the National Guard, with a cocked hat and cap-
tain's epaulets. General Lagarde ordered the gens
d'armes who made the capture to deprive him of his
sword and carbine, but it was only after a long
struggle that they could carry out this order, for
Trestaillons protested that he would only give up
his carbine with his life. However, he was at last
obliged to yield to numbers, and when disarmed
was removed to the barracks ; but as there could be
no peace in the town as long as he was in it, the
general sent him to the citadel of Montpellier next
morning before it was light.

The disorders did not, however, cease at once.

795

CELEBRATED CRIMES

At eight o'clock a.m. they were still going on, the
mob seeming to be animated by the spirit of Tres-
taillons, for while the soldiers were occupied in a
distant quarter of the town a score of men broke
into the house of a certain Scipion Chabrier, who
had remained hidden from his enemies for a long
time, but who had lately returned home on the
strength of the proclamations published by General
Lagarde when he assumed the position of com-
mandant of the town. He had indeed been sure that
the disturbances in Nimes were over, when they
burst out with redoubled fury on the 16th of Octo-
ber; on the morning of the 17th he was working
quietly at home at his trade of a silk weaver, when,
alarmed by the shouts of a parcel of cut-throats
outside his house, he tried to escape. He succeeded
in reaching the " Coupe d'Or," but the ruffians fol-
lowed him, and the first who came up thrust him
through the thigh with his bayonet. In consequence
of this wound he fell from top to bottom of the
staircase, was seized and dragged to the stables,
where the assassins left him for dead, with seven
wounds in his body.

This was, however, the only murder committed
that day in the town, thanks to the vigilance and
courage of General Lagarde.

The next day a considerable crowd gathered, and
a noisy deputation went to General Lagarde's quar-

796

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

ters and insolently demanded that Trestaillons
should be set at liberty. The general ordered them
to disperse, but no attention was paid to this com-
mand, whereupon he ordered his soldiers to charge,
and in a moment force accomplished what long-
continued persuasion had failed to effect. Several
of the ringleaders were arrested and taken to prison.

Thus, as we shall see, the struggle assumed a new
phase : resistance to the royal power was made in
the name of the royal power, and both those who
broke or those who tried to maintain the public peace
used the same cry, " Long live the king ! "

The firm attitude assumed by General Lagarde
restored Nimes to a state of superficial peace, be-
neath which, however, the old enmities were fer-
menting. An occult power, which betrayed itself
by a kind of passive resistance, neutralised the effect
of the measures taken by the military commandant.
He soon became cognisant of the fact that the es-
sence of this sanguinary political strife was an
hereditary religious animosity, and in order to strike
a last blow at this, he resolved, after having received
permission from the king, to grant the general re-
quest of the Protestants by reopening their places
of worship, which had been closed for more than
four months, and allowing the public exercise of the
Protestant religion, which had been entirely sus-
pended in the city for the same length of time.

797

CELEBRATED CRIMES

Formerly there had been six Protestant pastors
resident in Nimes, but four of them had fled; the
two who remained were MM. Juillerat and Olivier
Desmonts, the first a young man, twenty-eight years
of age, the second an old man of seventy.

The entire weight of the ministry had fallen dur-
ing this period of proscription on M. Juillerat, who
had accepted the task and religiously fulfilled it. It
seemed as if a special providence had miraculously
protected him in the midst of the many perils which
beset his path. Although the other pastor, M. Des-
monts, was president of the Consistory, his life was
in much less danger; for, first, he had reached an
age which almost everywhere commands respect,
and then he had a son who was a lieutenant in one
of the royal corps levied at Beaucaire, who pro-
tected him by his name when he could not do so by
his presence. M. Desmonts had therefore little
cause for anxiety as to his safety either in the streets
of Nimes or on the road between that and his coun-
try house.

But, as we have said, it was not so with M. Juil-
lerat. Being young and active, and having an un-
faltering trust in God, on him alone devolved all
the sacred duties of his office, from the visitation
of the sick and dying to the baptism of the newly
born. These latter were often brought to him at
night to be baptized, and he consented, though un-

798

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

willingly, to make this concession, feeling that if
he insisted on the performance of the rite by day
he would compromise not only his own safety but
that of others. In all that concerned him personally,
such as consoling the dying or caring for the
wounded, he acted quite openly, and no danger that
he encountered on his way ever caused him to flinch
from the path of duty.

One day, as M. Juillerat was passing through the
rue des Barquettes on his way to the prefecture to
transact some business connected with his ministry,
he saw several men lying in wait in a blind alley
by which he had to pass. They had their guns
pointed at him. He continued his way with tranquil
step and such an air of resignation that the assas-
sins were overawed, and lowered their weapons as
he approached, without firing a single shot. When
M. Juillerat reached the prefecture, thinking that
the prefect ought to be aware of everything con-
nected with the public order, he related this incident
to M. d'Arbaud-Jouques, but the latter did not think
the affair of enough importance to require any
investigation.

It was, as will be seen, a difficult enterprise to
open once again the Protestant places of worship,
which had been so long closed, in present circum-
stances, and in face of the fact that the civil author-
ities regarded such a step with disfavour, but Gen-

799
Dumas— Vol. 2—13

CELEBRATED CRIMES

eral Lagarde was one of those determined charac-
ters who always act up to their convictions. More-
over, to prepare people's minds for this stroke of
religious policy, he relied on the help of the Due
d'Angouleme, who in the course of a tour through
the South was almost immediately expected at
Nimes.

On the 5th of November the prince made his
entry into the city, and having read the reports of
the general to the King Louis xvm, and having
received positive injunctions from his uncle to
pacify the unhappy provinces which he was about
to visit, he arrived full of the desire to display,
whether he felt it or not, a perfect impartiality; so
when the delegates from the Consistory were pre-
sented to him, not only did he receive them most
graciously, but he was the first to speak of the in-
terests of their faith, assuring them that it was only
a few days since he had learned with much regret
that their religious services had been suspended since
the 1 6th of July. The delegates replied that in such
a time of agitation the closing of their places of
worship was a measure of prudence which they had
felt ought to be borne, and which had been borne,
with resignation. The prince expressed his approval
of this attitude with regard to the past, but said that
his presence was a guarantee for the future, and
that on Thursday the 9th inst. the two meeting-

800

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

houses should be reopened and restored to their
proper use. The Protestants were alarmed at hav-
ing a favour accorded to them which was much
more than they would have dared to ask and for
which they were hardly prepared. But the prince
reassured them by saying that all needful measures
would be taken to provide against any breach of the
public peace, and at the same time invited M. Des-
monts, president, and M. Roland-Lacoste, member
of the Consistory, to dine with him.

The next deputation to arrive was a Catholic one,
and its object was to ask that Trestaillons might be
set at liberty. The prince was so indignant at this
request that his only answer was to turn his back
on those who proffered it.

The next day the duke, accompanied by General
Lagarde, left for Montpellier ; and as it was on the
latter that the Protestants placed their sole reliance
for the maintenance of those rights guaranteed for
the future by the word of the prince, they hesitated
to take any new step in his absence, and let the 9th
of November go by without attempting to resume
public worship, preferring to wait for the return of
their protector, which took place on Saturday even-
ing the nth of November.

When the general got back, his first thought was
to ask if the commands of the prince had been car-
ried out, and when he heard that they had not, with-

801

CELEBRATED CRIMES

out waiting to hear a word in justification of the
delay, he sent a positive order to the president of
the Consistory to open both places of worship the
next morning.

Upon this, the president carrying self-abnegation
and prudence to their extreme limits, went to the
general's quarters, and having warmly thanked him,
laid before him the dangers to which he would ex-
pose himself by running counter to the opinions
of those who had had their own way in the city
for the last four months. But General Lagarde
brushed all these considerations aside: he had re-
ceived an order from the prince, and to a man of
his military cast of mind no course was open but
to carry that order out.

Nevertheless, the president again expressed his
doubts and fears.

" I will answer with my head," said the general,
" that nothing happens." Still the president coun-
selled prudence, asking that only one place of wor-
ship at first be opened, and to this the general gave
his consent.

This continued resistance to the re-establishment
of public worship on the part of those who most
eagerly desired it enabled the general at last to real-
ise the extent of the danger which would be incurred
by the carrying out of this measure, and he at once
took all possible precautions. Under the pretext

802

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

that he was going to have a general review, he
brought the entire civil and military forces of Nimes
under his authority, determined, if necessary, to use
the one to suppress the other. As early as eight
o'clock in the morning a guard of gens d'armes was
stationed at the doors of the meeting-house, while
other members of the same force took up their posi-
tions in the adjacent streets. On the other hand,
the Consistory had decided that the doors were to
be opened an hour sooner than usual, that the bells
were not to be rung, and that the organ should be
silent.

These precautions had both a good and a bad
side. The gens d'armes at the door of the meeting-
house gave if not a promise of security at least a
promise of support, but they showed to the citizens
of the other party what was about to be done; so
before nine o'clock groups of Catholics began to
form, and as it happened to be Sunday the inhabi-
tants of the neighbouring villages arriving con-
stantly by twos and threes soon united these groups
into a little army. Thus the streets leading to the
church being thronged, the Protestants who pushed
their way through were greeted with insulting re-
marks, and even the president of the Consistory,
whose white hair and dignified expression had no
effect upon the mob, heard the people round him
saying, " These brigands of Protestants are going

803

CELEBRATED CRIMES

again to their temple, but we shall soon give them
enough of it."

The anger of the populace soon grows hot; be-
tween the first bubble and the boiling-point the inter-
val is short. Threats spoken in a low voice were
soon succeeded by noisy objurgations. Women,
children, and men broke out into yells, " Down with
the broilers ! " ( for this was one of the names by
which the Protestants were designated). "Down
with the broilers! We do not want to see them
using our churches: let them give us back our
churches ; let them give us back our churches, and go
to the desert. Out with them! Out with them!
To the desert ! To the desert ! "

As the crowd did not go beyond words, however
insulting, and as the Protestants were long inured
to much worse things, they plodded along to their
meeting-house, humble and silent, and went in, mi'
deterred by the displeasure they aroused, whereupon
the service commenced.

But some Catholics went in with them, and soon
the same shouts which had been heard without were
heard also within. The general, however, was on
the alert, and as soon as the shouts arose inside the
gens d'armes entered the church and arrested those
who had caused the disturbance. The crowds tried
to rescue them on their way to prison, but the gen-
eral appeared at the head of imposing forces, at the

804

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

sight of which they desisted. An apparent calm
succeeded the tumult, and the public worship went
on without further interruption.

The general, misled by appearances, went off him-
self to attend a military mass, and at eleven o'clock
returned to his quarters for lunch. His absence
was immediately perceived and taken advantage of.
In the twinkling of an eye, the crowds, which had
dispersed, gathered together in even greater num-
bers and the Protestants, seeing themselves once
more in danger, shut the doors from within, while
the gens d'armes guarded them without. The popu-
lace pressed so closely round the gens d'armes, and
assumed such a threatening attitude, that fearing
he and his men would not be able to hold their own
in such a throng, the captain ordered M. Delbose,
one of his officers, to ride off and warn the general.
He forced his way through the crowd with great
trouble, and went off at a gallop. On seeing this,
the people felt there was no time to be lost; they
knew of what kind the general was, and that he
would be on the spot in a quarter of an hour. A
large crowd is invincible through its numbers; it
has only to press forward, and everything gives
way, men, wood, iron. At this moment the crowd,
swayed by a common impulse, swept forward, the
gens d'armes and their horses were crushed against
the wall, doors gave way, and instantly with a tre-

805

CELEBRATED CRIMES

mendous roar a living wave flooded the church.
Cries of terror and frightful imprecations were
heard on all sides, everyone made a weapon of what-
ever came to hand, chairs and benches were hurled
about, the disorder was at its height; it seemed as
if the days of the Michelade and the Bagarre were
about to return, when suddenly the news of a ter-
rible event was spread abroad, and assailants and
assailed paused in horror. General Lagarde had
just been assassinated.

As the crowd had foreseen, no sooner did the
messenger deliver his message than the general
sprang on his horse, and, being too brave, or per-
haps too scornful, to fear such foes, he waited for
no escort, but, accompanied by two or three officers,
set off at full gallop towards the scene of the tumult.
He had passed through the narrow streets which
led to the meeting-house by pushing the crowd aside
with his horse's chest, when, just as he got out into
the open square, a young man named Boisson, a ser-
geant in the Nimes National Guard, came up and
seemed to wish to speak to him. The general see-
ing a man in uniform, bent down without a thought
of danger to listen to what he had to say, whereupon
Boisson drew a pistol out and fired at him. The ball
broke the collar-bone and lodged in the neck behind
the carotid artery, and the general fell from his
horse.

806

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

The news of this crime had a strange and un-
expected effect; however excited and frenzied the
crowd was, it instantly realised the consequences of
this act. It was no longer like the murder of
Marshal Brune at Avignon or General Ramel at
Toulouse, an act of vengeance on a favourite of
Napoleon, but open and armed rebellion against
the king. It was not a simple murder, it was high
treason.

A feeling of the utmost terror spread through
the town ; only a few fanatics went on howling in
the church, which the Protestants, fearing still
greater disasters, had by this time resolved to aban-
don. The first to come out was President Olivier
Desmonts, accompanied by M. Vallongues, who had
only just arrived in the city, but who had immedi-
ately hurried to the spot at the call of duty.

M. Juillerat, his two children in his arms, walked
behind them, followed by all the other worshippers.
At first the crowd, threatening and ireful, hooted
and threw stones at them, but at the voice of the
mayor and the dignified aspect of the president they
allowed them to pass. During this strange retreat
over eighty Protestants were wounded, but not
fatally, except a young girl called Jeannette Cor-
nilliere, who had been so beaten and ill-used that she
died of her injuries a few days later.

In spite of the momentary slackening of energy
807

CELEBRATED CRIMES

which followed the assassination of General La-
garde, the Catholics did not remain long in a state
of total inaction. During the rest of the day the
excited populace seemed as if shaken by an earth-
quake. About six o'clock in the evening, some of
the most desperate characters in the town possessed
themselves of a hatchet, and, taking their way to
the Protestant church, smashed the doors, tore the
pastors' gowns, rifled the poor-box, and pulled the
books to pieces. A detachment of troops arrived
just in time to prevent their setting the building
on fire.

The next day passed more quietly. This time the
disorders were of too important a nature for the
prefect to ignore, as he had ignored so many bloody
acts in the past; so in due time a full report was
laid before the king. It became known the same
evening that General Lagarde was still living, and
that those around him hoped that the wound would
not prove mortal. Dr. Delpech, who had been sum-
moned from Montpellier, had succeeded in extract-
ing the bullet, and though he spoke no word of
hope, he did not expressly declare that the case
was hopeless.

Two days later everything in the town had
assumed its ordinary aspect, and on the 21st
of November the king issued the following
edict : —

808

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

" Louis, by the grace of God, King of France
and of Navarre,

" To all those to whom these presents shall come,
greeting :

" An abominable crime has cast a stain on Our
city of Nimes. A seditious mob has dared to oppose
the opening of the Protestant place of worship, in
contempt of the constitutional charter, which while
it recognises the Catholic religion as the religion of
the State, guarantees to the other religious bodies
protection and freedom of worship. Our military
commandant, whilst trying to disperse these crowds
by gentle means before having resort to force, was
shot down, and his assassin has till now successfully
evaded the arm of the law. If such an outrage were
to remain unpunished, the maintenance of good
government and public order would be impossible,
and Our ministers would be guilty of neglecting
the law.

" Wherefore We have ordered and do order as
follows : —

" Art. i. Proceedings shall be commenced with-
out delay by Our attorney, and the attorney-general,
against the perpetrator of the murderous attack on
the person of Sieur Lagarde, and against the
authors, instigators, and accomplices of the insur-
rection which took place in the city of Nimes on
the 1 2th of the present month.

809

CELEBRATED CRIMES

" Art. 2. A sufficient number of troops shall be
quartered in the said city, and shall remain there at
the cost of the inhabitants, until the assassin and
his accomplices have been produced before a court
of law.

" Art. 3. All those citizens whose names are
not entitled to be on the roll of the National Guard
shall be disarmed.

" Our Keeper of the Seals, Our Minister of War,
Our Minister of the Interior, and Our Minister of
Police, are entrusted with the execution of this edict.

" Given at Paris at Our Castle of the Tuileries
on the 21st of November in the year of grace 1815,
and of Our reign the 21st.

(Signed) Louis "

Boissin was acquitted.

This was the last crime committed in the South,
and it led fortunately to no reprisals.

Three months after the murderous attempt to
which he had so nearly fallen a victim, General
Lagarde left Nimes with the rank of ambassador,
and was succeeded as prefect by M. d'Argont.

During the firm, just, and independent adminis-
tration of the latter, the disarming of the citizens
decreed by the royal edict was carried out without
bloodshed.

810

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH

Through his influence, MM. Chabot-Latour,
Saint-Aulaire, and Lascour were elected to the
Chamber of Deputies in place of MM. De Calviere,
De Vogue, and De Trinquelade.

And down to the present time the name of M.
d'Argont is held in veneration at Nimes, as if he
had only quitted the city yesterday.

811

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